Members of Gov. Butch Otter’s administration outlined their plans Monday in front of a joint session of the House and Senate environment and resources committees.

The Office of Species Conservation is leading the effort that will work with groups across the state to draft a plan in the next four months.

Otter’s initiative comes after a 2010 U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service decision that listing the 2-foot-tall bird as a threatened species was warranted, but not as high of a priority as protecting other species. A court agreement gave the federal agency until 2015 to review its decision.

Federal officials told Otter that the voluntary efforts by landowners to improve sage grouse habitat will not be adequate to ensure that the desert birds survive.

And since more than half of sage grouse habitat is on BLM land, the federal agency is working on its own plan.

But Nate Fisher, administrator of Idaho’s Office of Species Conservation, said that BLM plan would likely be “overbearing, broad-brushed and unnecessary.”

“These restrictions could become onerous,” Fisher said.

That’s why Otter is seeking to develop a state-written plan that is “biologically driven, legally defensible and politically palatable.”

But a few lawmakers raised questions about whether that is possible.

“You should not punish those landowners who have active leks (mating grounds) and good populations,” said Rogerson Republican Sen. Bert Brackett, a prominent rancher in sage grouse territory.

Idaho is modeling its efforts on Wyoming, which approved a plan to protect “core areas” of sage grouse habitat while allowing development in other areas with practices designed to reduce the impact on grouse. The Wyoming plan was done under an executive order of the governor, but Fisher said the Idaho Legislature could codify the plan next session.

Oakley Republican Rep. Scott Bedke, also a rancher, expressed concern that Idaho may have to do more to offset the Wyoming plan.

“Is Idaho being set up to be the mitigation state?” Bedke asked.

Bill Myers, a Boise lawyer and a former chief legal officer for the Department of Interior, expressed concerns that plans to prevent listing could end up being as hard on ranchers and others as a listing itself.

But he said states that delay developing their own plan may have less flexibility than states like Wyoming that get plans done early.

“I certainly wouldn’t want to be the last state to write a plan,” Myers said.

The possibility of listing the sage grouse — which is still hunted in Idaho — as a threatened species came from a series of lawsuits filed by groups including Hailey’s Western Watersheds Project.

Kate Fite, a biologist for the group, said the Wyoming “core habitat” model won’t work in Idaho because this state’s habitat is more fragmented.

Since ranchers like Brackett will have veto power over an Idaho plan, she said, she is skeptical it can pass legal muster.

“They are going to have to be honest about grazing impacts,” Fite said.

But Idaho Fish and Game Director Virgil Moore was more optimistic — even though grouse numbers have been trending downward.

“My personal opinion is we’ve got plenty of birds out there,” Moore said. “The issue is protecting them over a number of a years.”

Rocky Barker: 377-6484