Diamond Wing flies alone: Powell game bird farm only company to apply to be certified to attempt captive breeding of sage grouse

Posted 1/4/18

Diamond Wing Upland Game Birds, LLC, of Powell has been the only private company to apply for certification. Game and Fish commissioners will consider approving its application on Tuesday. Their answer should be made public sometime before Jan. …

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Diamond Wing flies alone: Powell game bird farm only company to apply to be certified to attempt captive breeding of sage grouse

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While Wyoming Game and Fish Commission rules allow for five private game bird farms to attempt captive rearing of the greater sage grouse, only one has applied to the commission for certification.

Diamond Wing Upland Game Birds, LLC, of Powell has been the only private company to apply for certification. Game and Fish commissioners will consider approving its application on Tuesday. Their answer should be made public sometime before Jan. 15.

“We’ll be ready,” said Diemer True, a former state senator, member of the Sage Grouse Implementation Team and mineral extraction entrepreneur who owns Diamond Wing. The facility is managed by Powell resident Karl Bear.

“We think we’ve met all their criteria, but this is the first time for all of us — including the Game and Fish. It’s hard to speculate [on approval],” True said.

If certified, Diamond Wing plans to finalize infrastructure renovations to prepare for the spring collection of up to 250 eggs. Gearing up for the prospects will be a large financial commitment, True said. A large portion of the funds have been dedicated to the project by True. He also intends on seeking additional investors.

A recent success story in the captive breeding of sage grouse, according to True, is a small scale victory at the Calgary Zoo. They reportedly started with an initial $5 million budget backed by the Canadian federal government. Diamond Wing is on its own. The Game and Fish isn’t allowed to spend a penny on the project, as stated in regulations.

“If it’s just us standing out there by ourselves, it’s going to be tough,” True said. “We’re seeking other investors to take Diamond Wing beyond just a game bird farm.”

Financing is one of the main reasons for the lack of other applicants, according to Tom Christiansen, Wyoming Game and Fish Department sage grouse program manager. Diamond Wing is the state’s largest game bird farm — including Game and Fish’s own pheasant farms.

Without approval of their application from the Game and Fish, the Wyoming Legislature’s goal of encouraging captive breeding could, at least temporarily, be dead in the water. For many, that would be fine. Wyoming Gov. Matt Mead allowed the law to pass without his signature, writing that he had “considerable reservations.” At the same time, proponents hope the measure may someday open land to mineral extraction, using raised grouse for mitigation and helping the world’s 10th largest producer of energy through a recent bust.

The bust has affected sage grouse conservation as well. Funding for conservation programs were transferred from the state’s general funds to the Wyoming Game and Fish Department, pushing the costs to those buying hunting and fishing licenses.

The 2017 law has a five-year sunset clause, making it difficult for Diamond Wing to reach their goals.

“There’s still time to determine if captive rearing can work, but not time to see if it will work in terms of augmenting populations,” Christiansen said.

Augmenting wild populations is considered to be extremely challenging — if not impossible. Scientists attempting to raise Attwater’s prairie chickens (a type of grouse) have tried to lift populations of the extremely endangered species in southern U.S. states for decades, spending millions with federal backing, and have yet to succeed in increasing wild populations.

“I don’t think it’s going to work,” said Brian Rutledge, Central Flyway Conservation Strategy and Policy Adviser for the Audubon Rockies, the regional office of the National Audubon Society serving Wyoming and Colorado.

Rutledge doesn’t think attempts should be made, arguing captive breeding efforts distract from efforts supported by most in the scientific community.

“It’s like treating a cancer by cutting off a bed sore,” he said.

Rutledge has decades of experience with endangered species, overseeing captive breeding programs at zoos and working within the Endangered Species Act (ESA).

“When I was breeding endangered species, it was because they were extirpated in the wild,” Rutledge said. “We should be trying to restore the habitat’s carrying capacity. Lifting sage grouse [populations] is dependent on habitat.”

Department of Interior (DOI) Secretary Ryan Zinke has announced plans to rework an 11-state collaborative plan that was aimed at saving the sage grouse from being listed as an endangered species.

Mead has been openly critical of Zinke’s new strategy, worrying that it places too much of a focus on population targets and captive breeding.

“Industry needs predictability, but the report does not explain fully how population targets provide that certainty,” Mead said in an August statement.

Bear, with decades of practical experience raising wild game birds, isn’t going to allow critics to bring him down.

“It’s very controversial,” he said. “In 2008, they said captive breeding couldn’t be done. Now that there have been small scale successes in captive breeding, they’re saying augmenting wild populations can’t be done. The bar keeps getting raised.”

True is confident in Bear’s ability and has also added Taylor Environmental Consulting (TEC) to the team. The Casper-based company is headed up by wildlife biologist Renee Taylor, who has been working on sage grouse issues since the statewide effort began in 1999.

“It’s a whole new deal — a grand experiment,” Taylor said.

Taylor will assist in the process, from collecting eggs to possible releases. Taylor has worked extensively with energy companies looking to do business in the sagebrush sea. Wyoming has 26 percent of the U.S. sagebrush habitat and 37 percent of the nation’s population of sage grouse.

Bear has raised many wild bird species, all with their own intricate needs. He’s gained the confidence of Christiansen, who has little doubt Bear can raise chicks from the collected eggs, should he get the chance.

“He’s good at what he does,” Christiansen said.

But Christiansen, like Rutledge and Mead, is still a proponent of habitat conservation as the best way to save the sage grouse.

“Without habitat, there is no hope. If we’re at the point that we need to rely on captive breeding, we have definitely lost,” he said.

Rutledge won’t be happy even if, against all odds, Diamond Wing is successful.

“I’m opposed to the very idea that our game animals have become a commodity. It runs counter to everything Wyoming has fought for,” he said.

True is unsure if Diamond Wing’s experiment in captive breeding will meet all of his goals — ultimately ending with the successful release of captively bred sage grouse that, in turn, breed in the wild.

“This may or may not work. But the state has a vested interest in the experiment,” True said in a Tuesday phone interview. “At this point, if captive breeding doesn’t work, we haven’t lost anything,”

He’s trying not to overthink the work ahead until Diamond Wing is certified. Success is a daunting task, True said. If the lone application is approved by the commission, they’ll kick into high gear. The business’ only expectation is to give it their best effort; their hopes of success, at this point in the process, is mostly unspoken.

“At first you’re totally intimidated, until one day you crawl on that horse and realize you can ride,” True said.

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