Derek Dowsett is the Producer of the County Seat. Now entering his 11th season of the program, he has received what he considers a "Crash Course" in County Government.

“These birds have learned to come to a particular area like the old gymnasium for the sock hop and they’ve learned to display and show their aggression and dominance and so forth and the hens come to the leke to watch the males dancing and displaying and determine who is going to get lucky.” – Bill Fenimore

The importance of Sage Grouse “getting lucky” may be more important than you think. This Bird Species has been petitioned for listing as a threatened species by the year 2015.
Loss of Habitat from settlement and continued development in the west has largely contributed to a decline in Sage Grouse Populations. There are a number of threats to the birds and no one threat is exclusively contributing to their decline.

“This could be the most devastating issue in the rural areas of the west, everywhere there is sage brush could be an area that is eliminated from use for agriculture, mining, timber, oil and gas, hunting, recreation so we have already seen the tip of that occurring in Elko County and we don’t like it.” -Grant Gerber, Elko County, NV.

Chad Booth discusses Sage Grouse Planning with LuAnn Adams, Box Elder County Commissioner; Juan Palma, State Director of the BLM and Kevin Carter from School and institutional trust lands administration.