× Thanks for reading! Log in to continue. Enjoy more articles by logging in or creating a free account. No credit card required. Log in Sign up {{featured_button_text}}

TWIN FALLS • Jim Patterson, a Gooding area rancher, said he’d love to see sage grouse populations make a comeback.

Patterson said he hopes for a compromise in managing the bird in southern Idaho — one on which environmentalists and those with grazing interests can agree.

But grazing has gotten an undeserved “black eye,” he said. While ranchers sacrifice nights and weekends to work on the issue, environmentalists are paid full-time to rail against them, he said.

“We’re an easy target, too. We want to see them (sage grouse) back, but it has to be the right way.”

Patterson was one of many at a Tuesday open house to comment on several sage grouse conservation plans proposed by federal agencies. The room was dominated by ranchers. That’s been the trend as the U.S. Bureau of Land Management and Forest Service tour Idaho, gathering comments, said BLM spokeswoman Jessica Gardetto.

Sage grouse are chicken-sized birds known for their elaborate mating dances in specific areas called leks. They need solitude and sagebrush-rich landscapes to survive, but their habitat has declined 50 percent in the past century and populations have fallen 90 percent.