Chad Baldwin

Before I moved back to Wyoming five years ago, I spent three years in the Magic Valley of south-central Idaho, a productive farming region bisected by the picturesque Snake River Canyon.

The first time I crossed the bridge across the canyon from Interstate 84 to the bustling city of Twin Falls, the view took my breath away. The nearly 500-foot-deep gorge Evel Knievel tried to jump with his "skycycle" in 1974 is truly a natural wonder.

The community has just recently begun to recognize the gem that is the canyon, developing trails along its rim and reducing harmful discharges into the river. But it hasn't always been that way. For years, the canyon and the river served as a dumping ground; annual cleanup efforts always yield old car bodies, farm implements and many other items that people tossed over the edge.

The phenomenon of it taking a long time for a community to realize the value of a resource at its doorstep isn't unique to Twin Falls, of course. The same could be said of the North Platte River here in Casper. Familiarity breeds apathy, if not contempt.

Such is the case with some of Wyoming's most plentiful species - most notably, sagebrush and the critters that depend upon it. They exist in such abundance here that we take them for granted, not recognizing that from the perspective of what's happening across the West, they have great value.

And when efforts to protect those resources seemingly stand in the way of economic progress, some are ready to cast them aside.

"Who cares about the stupid sage grouse? Are we going to let them rule our state?" one of our online readers wrote after seeing last week's story about state officials' decision to not allow wind turbines in the bird's key habitat. "I don't see how they are so vitally important that we should be basing our energy policies on protecting some stupid bird that isn't worth anything anyway. Put up the windmills, and if the sage grouse die off we won't have to hear about them anymore."

It's true that we have published many stories about sage grouse recently. The fate of the bird and its effect on energy development have become one of the region's major natural resource debates. I understand that many people are tired of reading about it, even though I would argue the issue is of such importance that we have a duty to cover it thoroughly.

But I can't relate to the perspective that sage grouse is "some stupid bird" that we'd be better off eliminating. In fact, I've come to believe that the grouse is one of Wyoming's treasures, and the efforts to protect the species are essential.

Let me make it clear that I don't think the sage grouse should be placed on the endangered species list in Wyoming, and I do believe it's possible to both protect the bird and develop our wind and natural gas resources. But requiring developers to work around the grouse and its habitat isn't asking too much.

What is it about the sage grouse that makes it so valuable? For one thing, it's the bird's scarcity: Even though we still have lots of them in Wyoming, there aren't nearly as many as there once were, and their populations in other states have plummeted. In addition, they are Wyoming - native birds that stay here all year long, finding ways to survive in our harsh climate. While drab in appearance most of the year, they put on a spectacular show in spring. Count me among those who say the grouse should replace the meadowlark as Wyoming's state bird.

The status of the grouse also is a good indicator of the health of our sagebrush steppe ecosystem, which supports some other animals I'm fond of - mule deer and antelope among them.

Is the sage grouse just "some stupid bird" we can do without? I don't think so. We should do what it takes to keep it around - not just to avoid an endangered listing that would hurt the state's economy, but because the grouse have great value in and of themselves.

It would be a shame if all Wyomingites didn't recognize that value before the birds truly become imperiled.