NRCS offers protections to sage grouse-friendly farming and ranching operations

The Natural Resources Conservation Service and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service are offering a new incentive to get farmers and ranchers to protectcertain species – including sage grouse – on their properties.

Under Secretary for Natural Resources and Environment Harris Sherman says they want ranchers to do things like shifting their grazing patterns, in order to preserve sage grouse habitat. If a rancher signs on, he or she would get certain protections, if sage grouse end up on the Endangered Species List.

“That farmer or rancher will be given an assurance, or a certainty, that they can continue to do their operations as they have done in the past, even if the species is listed,” Sherman said.

Sherman says the goal is to keep animals like the sage grouse off the Endangered Species List, while enabling farming and ranching operations to remain productive.