This is the season when male sage grouse strut and display their colorful plumage across the sagebrush sea that spreads across the West.

It is a natural phenomena scientists say will disappear unless action is taken to keep these beautiful birds, the indicator species for an entire ecosystem, from going extinct. The debate over their future is heating up as the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has been forced to reconsider its decision not to list them as a threatened or endangered species.

One place you can learn more about the bird and the debate as well as sign up for guided tours to the sites where sage grouse dance is Dubois, April 12 and 13. For the sixth year Dubois Grouse Days celebrates these treasures of the desert West and the grassroots efforts to save them.

Ranchers and environmentalists team up in a two-day event that features a banquet, arts and craft booths, kids activities, presentations by biologists and ranchers, a raffle and silent auction. The guided tours cost $40, for adults, $25 for kids. Photo blinds are available for $25 daily.

Proceeds from the event support local conservation and education activities, and a scholarship for a graduating Dubois senior.

The event, like Stanley’s Sockeye Days, brings people together to celebrate a common value. These are the kind of events that salve the wounds created by endangered species conflicts.

This year, Jim Mosher, deputy assistant secretary for Fish and Wildlife and Parks at the US Department of Interior, will speak at the banquet. He is Interior secretary Dirk Kempthorne’s lead on endangered species issues. Mosher is seeking to overcome the distrust created by his predecessor Julie McDonald, an engineer and a lawyer but not a biologist, who added scientific references to studies the agencies' biologists did not include, and removed references to research done by sage grouse experts.

Mosher has a Ph.D. in Zoology from Brigham Young University, has authored peer-reviewed papers on avian ecology, biology, and management as well as several book chapters. He’s also a member of The Wildlife Society, American Ornithological Society, Raptor Research Foundation, and is a professional member of the Boone & Crockett Club.

For some his top credential is an upland bird hunter. I met Mosher at an informal meeting of a group of sage grouse professionals in 2006 known as the North American Grouse Partnership before he joined the administration.

These scientists, environmental leaders and others have formed an alternative program to preserve grouse habitat across the millions of acres of the West by encouraging voluntary actions by industry and individuals. Alan Sands of the Nature Conservancy of Idaho is among its board members.

Owyhee County Rancher John Romero, working with the Wisconsin-based Sand County Foundation, has been helping local ranchers learn from successful rehab efforts elsewhere. And the group has worked to support Gov. Butch Otter’s rehab efforts after the Murphy Springs fire last summer.

These kind of cooperative conservation programs, supported by President Bush have been obscured by the administration’s mischief on endangered species protection, the scandals around former Interior officials like Assistant Secretary Steve Griles and the overall anti-environmental bent of administration policy.

That’s too bad because many of these have slowly cut across the great ideological divide not only in the West but nationwide on environmental issues. Dubois Grouse Days offers people a chance to see these efforts first hand and maybe even the courtship ballet of Idaho sage grouse.

To register for events call (208) 374-5422, or e-mail: jtavenner@mudlake.net or ckeetch71@hotmail.com.