The US Bureau of Land Management’s Pinedale Anticline Project Office (PAPO) is seeking public comments on a 2014 acoustic noise report on sound levels at 19 Greater Sage Grouse leks—places where males gather to attract females during mating season—in western Wyoming’s Pinedale Anticline natural gas field.
The bird, which the US Fish and Wildlife Service is considering for designation as a threatened species, uses elaborate visual and audio display behavior to attract a mate, and depends on audio communication during females and chicks during brood rearing, the Dec. 31, 2014, report said.
Anthropogenic noise from human activity, including oil and gas development and production, represents a potential threat, it indicated. The study’s objective was to monitor noise levels at 19 Greater Sage Grouse lakes in the Pinedale Anticline Project Area south of the city of Pinedale.
Comments on the report will be accepted until Mar. 3 at PAPO in BLM’s Pinedale field office. It will not respond directly, but will consider comments it receives for the final report, PAPO said on Feb. 17.
Contact Nick Snow at [email protected].