The sage grouse, the largest grouse in North America, is utterly dependent on the vast landscapes of healthy sagebrush found throughout the American west.   This bird, once numbering in the tens of millions, is emblematic of such arid landscapes.   

Today agriculture and energy development have reduced populations to about 200,000, prompting the US Department of the Interior to formally acknowledge this year that the bird deserves Endangered Species status.   This protection has been deferred, however, until federal funding is available and other more threatened species are dealt with.   Meanwhile, oil and gas development continues, unabated, across the American west.