The Big Bend Wildlife Area north of Grand Coulee just got 2,100 acres bigger—and so did habitat for one of the Columbia Plateau's endangered birds.
After buying the Big Bend Ranch—which runs along the Columbia River—last year, the nonprofit Western Rivers Conservancy transferred it to Washington’s Department of Fish and Wildlife on Tuesday, and WDFW added it to the neighboring wildlife area.
“This particular area of shrubsteppe is a habitat that has been disappearing,” Western Rivers Project Manager Jessica Inwood said. “And it's really important habitat for the Colombian sharp-tailed grouse, as well as greater sage grouse. Those are both endangered species in Washington state.”
Conservationists were especially excited to find that the parcel contains a lek.
“Leks are basically an area where grouse are for breeding,” Inwood told SPR News. “This specific area is also an area where they live year-round, which is really important, therefore, to protect it.
“It's also important to have large landscapes connected for grouse to move around,” she continued. “And so by kind of filling in this gap and ensuring that it's conserved permanently, we know that that area will be able to stay a habitat for them.”
Fish and Wildlife estimates up to 80% of the shrubsteppe ecosystem has been lost or degraded.
“There's been a lot of conversion of shrubsteppe habitat to agriculture and other rural-urban developments and fragmentation through powerline corridors and things like that,” Fish and Wildlife Land Operations Manager Rich Finger said.
The landscape isn’t just at risk from humans. Wildfires are also playing a role in habitat destruction.
“Sagebrush is very, very slow to recover,” Finger told SPR News. “And so even though we have a landscape that is not impacted by machinery, even on those landscapes, we're seeing reduction in sagebrush cover through those fires.”
Because the ranch runs along the Columbia River, the land transfer will also allow the nearby Confederated Tribes of the Colville Reservation to work more closely with Fish and Wildlife for ongoing projects in the river, Inwood said
“It’s habitat for kokanee, rainbow trout, a few others—walleye, yellow perch. And the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife works really closely with the tribe on all sorts of projects,” she said. “So instead of it being private land that could be converted into development or whatnot, they have a really strong partner to continue conservation and restoration and working towards bringing salmon back.”
This acquisition was the fourth phase of a multi-step preservation project for the shrubsteppe, Finger said.
This phase incorporates the ranch into the Big Bend Wildlife Area, bringing its total size to about 24,000 acres of habitat for the grouse and other threatened species—and outdoor recreation opportunities for humans.
