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<br />-15- <br /> <br />The best sage grouse habitat in Colorado is in Moffat County-- <br />north of the Great Divide, east of the Little Snake River, <br />~ south of the Colorado-Wyoming state line, and west of the Routt <br />County line. These general boundaries, which include much of the <br />Savery-Pot Hook Project, circumscribe year-round sage grouse range <br />without reference to seasonal distribution, During the late fall, <br />sage grouse in this area move toward the Little Snake River. During <br />the winter, they can generally be found in the sagebrush biome <br />~ between the 6,500-foot contour and the river. <br />To monitor the status of sage grouse populations, the Colorado <br />Division of Wildlife conducts strutting ground trend counts in <br />this area and collects harvest data. Numbers of male birds on <br />a representative sample of strutting grounds are recorded <br />annually. These counts serve as a breeding population trend <br />indicator. There are several sage grouse strutting grounds on lands <br />which would he affected by the project. The Colorado Division of <br />~ Wildlife estimates that hunters are presently taking approximately <br />2O percent of the sage grouse in the Management Units open to hunting. <br />Therefore, in order to get an indicator of populations, we can use <br />Bunter-kill figures to demonstrate the importance of the Savery-Pot <br />Hook Project area to sage grouse. <br />The project lands fall within ?Management Units 14 and 16. Since lands <br />~ in both units will be seriously impacted by the project, harvest figures <br />r <br />