Saratoga sage grouse get extra protection

Jesse Mendoza, of Boy Scout Troop No. 152 in Rawlins, recruited the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) for his Eagle Scout project. Mendoza's project involved the help of BLM wildlife biologist Mary Read in order to install reflectors for sage grouse.

The importance of the project, Mendoza explained to the group of 12-14 people that joined him, was to keep the sage grouse from flying into fences on ranch land, which can kill them. The area where Mendoza's project took place, off county road 385, is next to two sage grouse leks, which is the area where the sage grouse mate and live based off an aggregation of males. Areas near leks take priority, Read said. No drilling or construction can take place in a quarter-mile buffer from a lek.

According to Read, the grouse fly low, with fences in their path, and have trouble seeing them in the morning when they strut. They then get fatally tangled in the barbed wire of the fences, and these reflectors allow the grouse to see where the fences are. The reflectors come from the Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS).

The fences are on BLM land that is rented by ranchers so that they might keep cattle on it. Jack Berger, of Berger Ranches, rents this particular land and stopped by to drop off some reflectors that he had been using and wish luck to the prospective Eagle Scout. The group divided into three sub-groups to cover the three miles of fencing as quickly as possible, with Mendoza's group literally going the extra mile, bringing the total mileage covered in that spot to four.

With all the volunteers from the troop, the BLM and Read's son, Christian Soles, the group finished quickly and were able to move on to other BLM property off Jack Creek Road and hang reflectors on another half mile of fencing. Mendoza's project covered about four-and one-half miles of fencing, powering through eight bags of 500 tags each.