Emergency Sage-Grouse Summit, Final Communique

Final recommendations from the Emergency Sage-Grouse Summit, hosted by AWA in Calgary, September 7 and 8, 2011. The Emergency Sage-Grouse Summit consisted of leading international scientists, local landowners and environmental organizations working to ensure that the spectacular greater sage-grouse remains on the landscape.

The recommendations from the Emergency Sage-Grouse Summit

are published in a new communiqué. The principle recommendations from the communiqué include :

• Designate additional critical habitat as identified based on proposed critical habitat maps produced in 2010.
• No new developments in critical sage-grouse habitat. Major concerns are about prolonging or expanding industrial development and associated activities in and around critical habitat.
• Restore existing critical habitat, including removal of industrial infrastructure.
• To allow for future recovery, previously occupied range outside current critical habitat must be restored to functionality for sage-grouse.
• Any new development outside of critical habitat but within the identified zone of influence (15 kilometres) must not contribute to the disturbance of the species or destruction of critical habitat.