First there was the news -- unsurprising, of course -- that environmentalists envision bad times ahead during the second term of the Bush administration. Bad times are officially here: Interior Department biologists have recommended against adding the sage grouse to the endangered species list, a determination that could wind up benefiting natural gas and oil producers but add to environmentalists' concerns. At stake is a bird whose numbers have declined to as few as 142,000, as well as the use of great expanses of Western sagebrush that provide cover and food between 4,000 and 9,000 feet elevations. At one time there may have been as many as 16 million of the birds in the Western United States and Canada, the government estimates. Officially, the non-listing is not a done deed, but holding out hope for the grouse will only leave you grousing about the situation: Steve Williams, director of the department's Fish and Wildlife Service, now must decide within 25 days whether to accept the biologists' recommendation and deny the bird federal protections that come from being added to the list. ... He and Interior Secretary Gale Norton have made no secret they generally prefer to rely on private conservation work and joint efforts by federal agencies, Western states and local governments, rather than ordering new restrictions on harming wildlife or using its habitat. "We must continue and wherever possible expand those efforts," Williams said Friday. --from John Heilprin, "Experts Nix Endangered Status for Grouse," AP (Dec. 3, 2004)