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Last Updated on Friday, 11 February 2011 13:59

Written by Christy Martinez

A new strategy for Candidate Conservation Agreements, or CCAs, and Candidate Conservation Agreements with Assurances, or CCAAs, is just about ready to head for the Federal Register.
That’s according to Scott Covington of the U.W. Fish and Wildlife Service’s (FWS) Cheyenne Ecological Services Field Office.
The goal of Wyoming’s proposed sage grouse CCAA strategy is to combine public and private lands in the state into a joint CCA/CCAA that would cover 35 million acres, should everyone eligible enroll.
“The strategy focuses on range management through a streamlined process,” says Covington.
“It doesn’t make sense to have a different set of conservation measures on private property than on public, and we’ve worked intensively for the last month on the BLM’s proposed approach,” states Covington. “We’d work to make sure those conservation measures cross over. That’s why the BLM and Forest Service have been at the table since the get-go.”
A CCA applies to federal or private lands, without assurances, while the CCAA applies only to private lands.
“CCAs are proactive, voluntary conservation agreements, with no assurances because of Section 7 requirement under Endangered Species Act,” says Covington. “But, the CCA agreement can dovetail into a CCAA.”
Covington says the goal was to have two sets of documents, one applying to grazing allotments on federal land and the other applying to private lands, with identical conservation measures.
“The whole idea is to preclude the need to list,” says Covington of the goal of CCAAs. “It can be for any species – for those proposed or those at risk of being added to the endangered species list.”
He emphasizes the CCAAs are not a mitigation tool, but rather they identify specific threats and remove them.
“It’s essentially a listing in reverse,” he explains. “We run a threats analysis on the five listing factors – including habitat, regulatory mechanisms, disease issues – and develop these agreements accordingly in conjunction with federal, state and local agencies.”
The assurances that come into play with CCAAs are that, along with things the landowner promises to do to preserve the species, the federal government promises that the land under the contract will not have increased land use restrictions should the targeted species be listed.
“The foundation of a CCAA is conservation measures, whether you avoid certain activities at certain times or reduce threats to a species on the property,” says Covington. “One of the biggest threats is fragmentation, and that’s one of the biggest things a landowner can address. Other conservation measures are specific actions to remove or reduce specific threats, and they must significantly contribute to eliminating the need to list. They may forego a practice that might influence the species, or allowing a species to be introduced.”
He says a grazing permittee would be able to nominate their federal grazing allotments for inclusion in the CCAA on their private land.
Covington says his agency is still working with the Forest Service, which has a slightly different approach. “In most cases we expect theirs to mimic the BLM, but that chapter remains to be written.
There would be one National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) document and one Environmental Assessment (EA) covering all actions in issuing the permit. In addition, Covington says the agreements would be “batched” for approval as they’re completed.
“If we set up quarterly time periods, say from June 1 to Oct. 31, we could collect the agreements from that time span, process them and send them all at one time to streamline the process,” he explains. “That way we can get them processed more quickly.”
On the question of who would hold the permit, Covington says, “Typically on an agreement of this scale we have one permit holder, but we will issue individual permits in this case. FWS will issue individual permits to each applicant.”
If there are a lot of applications in one time period, they’ll be prioritized according to whether or not they’re in or adjacent to a core area, within an energy development region or things of that nature.
“Those are just a few things that would help prioritize, and we want to focus efforts on the low-hanging fruit at first,” he says.
Of the biological monitoring to follow up on the effect of the agreements, Covington says that would be a three-tiered approach.
“Landowners would evaluate local range conditions, a team of cooperators will evaluate the habitat at a larger scale and the Wyoming Game and Fish Department will coordinate the data collection,” he says. “We’ll work with the Game and Fish, landowners, the BLM and whoever else we need to, to make sure the lek data is collected.”
Covington says, as the BLM and Forest Service draft their CCAs for internal review, he and his office will write the final draft of the CCAA, including the NEPA document. They hope to begin outreach activities in January 2011, and he says interested parties, including landowners and local sage grouse working groups, can contact him to take a look at the preliminary version in late January.
Scott Covington presented his information at the 2010 Wyoming Stock Growers Association Winter Roundup Dec. 12-14 in Casper. Christy Martinez is managing editor of the Wyoming Livestock Roundup and can be reached at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. .

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Last Updated on Monday, 17 August 2009 10:25

Written by Christy Hemken

    According to Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) Watershed Coordinator Nephi Cole, soil surveys are extremely valuable because soil will always be the most limiting natural resource.
    Because of their value they’ve been a priority for many years, even pre-dating the NRCS by 25 years. Currently the NRCS is in the midst of an effort to finish soil surveys throughout the entire U.S. by 2012.
    In Wyoming that goal has become a cooperative effort with funding coming from federal, state and private parties.
    Specific results from the soil survey can be found online by searching for a state and county, address or latitude and longitude. The tool uses the latest imagery available from USDA.
    “If you’re a developer, rancher, farmer or county planner you can type in the location you want and it’ll bring up all the different types of soils in the area,” explains Cole.
    A feature called the Soil Data Explorer breaks down the database information, interpreting the numbers into useful information for the everyday user. “Soil scientists have developed the data and figured out what it means to most people,” says Cole. “They’ve covered things like how the soil properties will affect what you want to do.”
    For example, under ‘vegetative productivity’ one can find numbers of expected range production for dry, normal and wet years, defined as pounds per acre.
    “The soil surveys come down to the ecological site descriptions,” says Cole. “What’s going to ultimately determine where the vegetation can go is always the soil, and an ecological site description is a look at all the types of vegetation at a location, and it can tell you what the range is capable of.”
    He says the ecological site descriptions are useful for the BLM, Forest Service and private landowners to use when deciding how to manage a certain piece of ground for a given condition. “I can look at an ecological site description to get a baseline for the potential of a piece of land,” he explains.
    “All of our planners use soil surveys as the backing for all their planning, and it’s the smart way to do it,” says Cole. “It’s going to give you a really good idea of whether or not you’re wasting your money on a location.”
    He gives an example of septic systems for home sites, and the location and cost of leach fields given the specific type of soil.
    All the soil mappers in Wyoming right now are working on initial soil surveys, and in Wyoming there are many areas with old soil survey data. “Previously, soils leadership decided they wouldn’t use any of that old data, but the new leadership made the decision we’d take the old information, data and field sheets from years ago and digitize them and that’s shortened the work load significantly – as in years,” says Cole.
    He explains GIS specialists are looking at the old polygons and finding the valuable data. “Rather than throwing away thousands of man-hours of work they’re figuring out productive ways to use it now.”
    Several years ago the estimate was that Wyoming wouldn’t be done with its soil mapping for at least 40 years, but now, with the help of the old data, the project’s completion is expected by 2012. “The eastern portion of the state, with the ag lands, is basically done,” says Cole. “Most of the areas that remain are those with large tracts of public rangelands.”
    “We’ve had great local support from conservation districts,” says Cole. “They, along with county commissioners, have really stepped up and been good about helping in whatever way they can. It’s not a lot, but every dollar of local funding makes a big statement to NRCS national leadership that the project is important to people on the ground.”
    Wyoming Association of Conservation Districts Executive Director Bobbie Frank says in 2002 WACD passed a resolution to make it a priority to get soil survey work done in Wyoming on an accelerated basis. “We’ve worked with the State Land Office, NRCS, local conservation districts and counties, along with the congressional delegation, to pull together multiple pots of money,” says Frank, noting that another goal is to make sure people know where survey data is available, how to access it and how to use it.
    As a result, the state, which hadn’t previously funded soil survey efforts, stepped in this year with funding for mapping on state lands.
    “We have a program called the Trust Preservation and Enhancement Account, and the legislature has twice appropriated money from the School Foundation Account with the idea that we can only spend that money on projects to preserve or enhance the underlying value of the real estate,” says Lynne Boomgaarden, Director of the Office of State Lands and Investments.
    “The benefit of mapping is that it helps with everything from grazing management practices to proposed special use leases,” she explains. “If we have a proposed sale, exchange or development the surveys give us good base information on what the soils are like, the forage potential or the building potential. It’s basic land inventory information for all of our land management practices.”
    To date the Board of Land Commissioners has approved $195,360 for soil survey work, $63,360 in February 2007 and $132,000 in December 2008.
    Cole says Wyoming’s conservation districts stepped up in a new way this year with lobbying efforts. “NRCS can’t lobby, so when conservation districts identified soil surveys as a priority they talked to the congressional delegation, which was able to increase funding significantly and retain the staff we have here at this time.”
    He credits Wyoming’s congressional delegation for their help with the project’s funding. “They deserve a huge pat on the back for what they’ve done,” he says. “They caught some flak for the earmarks they helped with, but because of them NRCS took funding and dedicated it to the soil survey effort, which benefits the entire state. Soil survey data is important for many reasons.”
    “We’ve got really good leadership here right now, and a really good plan and good staff,” says Cole, giving State Soil Scientist Astrid Martinez a lot of credit for the progress. “If they can hold it together it’s going to be done by 2012, but it’s a tall order and it’s not easy.”
    Last year Wyoming led the nation in acreage mapped and percentage above goal, at 152 percent. “That’s a credit to the staff here and how hard they worked and their innovation,” says Cole.
    To use the database, visit websoilsurvey.nrcs.usda.gov. For help using the database, Cole says contact your local NRCS office. Christy Hemken is assistant editor of the Wyoming Livestock Roundup and can be reached at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. .

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Last Updated on Thursday, 01 July 2010 14:38

Written by Christy Hemken

Buffalo – Phil Gonzales’s early start in rangeland management began on his father’s ranch in New Mexico, where he’d tag along with local Soil Conservation Service (SCS) staff as they worked on the ranch’s conservation contract.
On May 31 Gonzales will wrap up a 35-year career as a rangeland specialist with the agency, now known as the Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS).
“There were 10 kids in the family, so my dad had to work, and he’d send me out with the SCS people, and they’d come pick me up because I was just a kid and I’d go spend the whole day with them,” says Gonzales. “They were writing contracts and doing range mapping and fence layout and well and reservoir locations. I thought it was a cool job, and that’s how I got my interest.”
Gonzales would later attend New Mexico State University, earning a degree in range science with a focus in defoliation of vegetation – or how plants respond when their leaves are removed.
“I started with SCS when I was in school, so my career really started when I was in college. I first came to Wyoming as a student, where I worked six months and went to school six months,” he explains.
“Then I interviewed for a job, and they gave me a whole list of states, and Wyoming was last on the list, and when I said I’d go to Wyoming they tried to talk me out of it,” says Gonzales. “But I thought it would be kind of fun, so I came to Wyoming in 1976 and loved it.”
Gonzales’s time in the state began in Lusk, working for today’s Wyoming Livestock Board Director Jim Schwartz, after which he moved around to Evanston, Buffalo, Cheyenne and Torrington before landing back in Buffalo and northeast Wyoming as a range specialist for the Powder River drainage.
“My first impression of Wyoming was the wide-open spaces,” he says. “It wasn’t what I envisioned. Where I grew up there were a lot of trees, so we’d cut them down and get rid of them, and I thought the farther north you went the more trees there would be, but Wyoming is high plains and desert and open landscape, and it grows on a person really quick – the open landscape, vistas and lifestyle.”
Gonzales says his entire career with NRCS has been spent working with agriculture. “Some families and ranches have been here a long time, and that’s what’s nice, because in some areas it still is today what it always has been. Wyoming offers a history from prehistoric to historic to present-day, and there have been a lot of uses and things on the land. Some places in Wyoming haven’t had a lot of change since the wooly mammoths were down here from the north country.”
Of the challenges involved in his job through the years, he says the producers provide them. “Their resource concerns and the political issues they deal with bring those forward,” says Gonzales. “NRCS is truly the organization that works for private landowners. What they bring forward requires us to stay abreast of current technology to work with them to address the resource concerns and needs.”
Gonzales says sage grouse are his favorite project, because for the last 30 years he’s worked as a rangeland management specialist and has been able to see the long-term positive results in managing sage grouse habitat.
“We’ve been able to show that through grassland management we can benefit sage grouse and have outreaching benefits for other obligates on the land,” he explains, noting those include song birds, big game and watershed management as a whole.
Gonzales says as far as his short-term plans after retirement, he doesn’t have a whole lot planned, apart from a sheep hunt with two of his buddies this fall; all three of them drew tags.
“My professional goal would be to start working with producers on rangeland management and sage grouse issues,” he says. “My belief is this whole sage grouse issue is far from going away, and if we’re truly going to help we need to focus on it.”
“The thing about Wyoming is it offers a lot of challenges,” says Gonzales of his career in the Cowboy State. “I’ve had the opportunity through NRCS to foster knowledge and be able to find the answers.”
He adds his experience with NRCS has also taught him what not to do in some cases. “The landowners are the ones that give us that experience. They’re willing to work with us, and not criticize, and they’re the ones at risk,” he comments. “Every time when we’re working, the overall bottom line is their bottom line, so we have to be careful we don’t affect that. The whole goal is keeping landowners on the land, otherwise it will turn into condos.”
“Now I’ve lived in Wyoming longer than I lived in New Mexico, and I call Wyoming home,” says Gonzales. “Wyoming offers the quality of life, and that’s what I like. Not many people get to enjoy this.”
However, he says he didn’t enjoy the wind at Cheyenne and about quit his job the second time he lost his hat. “The first one I chalked up to inexperience, but when I lost the second hat I called the boss and told him I was going home because I couldn’t live someplace where I couldn’t keep a hat on. Other than that, it’s been alright.”
Looking into the future of the agency and rangeland management, Gonzales sees the biggest challenge as keeping landowners on the land.
“We need to keep landowners on the land. Most of them, the land is their retirement, and if they sell we all lose,” he says. “If landowners leave the land, it’s usually split up somehow. The Farmland Protection Program is the role of NRCS in keeping the landowners, and the Grazing Reserve Program. We as a society need to work with landowners, because if we keep losing them we keep losing those things we enjoy the most – the wildlife, vistas and air and water quality.”
Christy Hemken is managing editor of the Wyoming Livestock Roundup and can be reached at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. .

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Last Updated on Monday, 25 October 2010 11:48

Written by Heather Hamilton

Buffalo – The Wyoming Department of Agriculture (DOA) updated area one conservation districts on several topics of concern and interest during the Wyoming Association of Conservation Districts Area 1 Meeting at the TA Ranch south of Buffalo on September 14.
“The courts have said you are only a certified animal feeding operation (CAFO) if you are discharging, or proposing to discharge. That’s not new, but what that does is open the door for someone to say they aren’t discharging when they actually are. That’s why they are getting concerned. The whole idea is that they will go out this fall and get CAFO’s on their inventory list that aren’t currently there. This is much more of a national issue than a Wyoming issue,” explains DOA Director Jason Fearneyhough of the Environmental Protection Agencies (EPA) focus for upcoming months.
“The concern within the state is what is being done to find these folks that aren’t under permit currently. From my perspective a big issue is if they are using satellite imagery to find these individuals, and if so how are they going to apply that? Is it proven technology to that point,” asked Fearnehough of the process.
The EPA has finalized development of their draft permit for National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System NPEDS. There will be a meeting at the end of the month where the DOA can comment and voice any concerns they may have. Fearneyhough noted he has some concerns with some aspects of the proposed permit and the wording in parts of the document.
“We put about nine million federal and state dollars into the grasshopper program this year, and that doesn’t count what individual producers have put into it. That being said you could probably triple that figure to determine what was spent on control,” notes Fearneyhough of another area of focus for the DOA this summer.
“We will probably take some criticism where we didn’t get to croplands until later. That was due to the EPA not giving us clearance to use Dimlin on crops early. Going forward we are asking for 2.6 million dollars in our supplemental budget to have a program again next year. We are hopeful the incoming governor will be supportive of the program,” adds Fearneyhough.
Wild horses were also mentioned as a focus of the DOA and Fearneyhough noted the use of the term “treasured herds” causes him concern.
“These are multiple use agencies in charge of these lands, and they should focus on multiple uses. Having treasured lands or treasured herds raises one use above others and risks having other uses reduced or removed completely.
“There are currently as many horses in long term holding facilities as on the range – about 35,000 in each area. Seventy-five percent of the budget goes toward those horses in the holding facilities. The BLM is looking into buying or leasing more private lands and using birth control on mares.  The idea is to get the number of reproducing horses down to a number that will match their adoption program, which adopts out around 3,500 horses annually,” says Fearneyhough.
He adds the gather in southwest Wyoming for this fall is still scheduled. “There are supposed to be around 300 horses in the Adobe Town and Salt Wells herds, and the BLM estimates numbers at 1,300 to 1,500. Some ranchers in the area will tell you the BLM’s counts are off by more than half. It’s a huge concern and the ‘horse advocates’ are already in Rock Springs. I just hope that long term we don’t end up like Nevada, just watching those horses stand there and starve to death,” notes Fearneyhough.
He also mentioned the Ruby pipeline and the DOA’s concern with how the entire settlement has panned out prior to handing the microphone over to DOA Ag Program Coordinator Justin Williams.
Among the handouts Williams provided attendees was a booklet on Coordinated Resource Management in Wyoming, which highlighted a number of projects within the state. He encouraged district employees to pass them out at their offices.
“We’re also looking at doing a more social networking aspect of supplying information to districts. We are looking into using YouTube for playing videos. The first one will be on legislative outreach and will be between 10 and 15 minutes long, and in a format you could put on a disc and play for your board members to give them a better idea of how legislation works,” explains Williams of some current ideas being considered. He also mentioned supervisor and field officer training was conducted this year with much success.
Williams has worked in conjunction with Game and Fish, BLM, NRCS and others to come up with a statewide program to deal with the sage grouse and range management.
“Last year we published a grazing influenced directive and if you would like to download and review the document it is UW Extension publication number B-1203 and is available on their website,” explains Williams.
He adds the DOA still has funding for a second round of water quality grant RMP’s and that will come out in early October and there is $133,531.50 left.
“Eleven districts re-ceived funding in the first round of projects. If you have projects you’ve thought of throughout the summer you can apply for that funding the next month or so,” says Williams in conclusion.
Heather Hamilton is editor of the Wyoming Livestock Roundup and can be reached at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. .