ESA petition submitted for Mount Pinos Sooty Grouse

[Laura Bies]

The Center for Biological Diversity has submitted a petition to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, asking the agency to list the Mount Pinos Sooty Grouse (Dendragapus fuliginosus howardi) as a threatened or endangered subspecies under the Endangered Species Act, and to designate critical habitat for the species. Historically found in high-elevation forests and meadows from the southern Sierra Nevada Mountains southward into the sky island mountains of Southern California, today the species is only found in the  Sierra Nevadas.

According to a 2018 report from the U.S. Forest Service, “the Mount Pinos sooty grouse has likely been extirpated from much of its historic range.” The report concluded that the species met the criteria for species of conservation concern in the Inyo National Forest. The California Department of Fish and Wildlife considers it a “species of special concern.”

Read the full petition here.

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