What’s good for the herd is good for the bird?

An adage in western ranching circles holds: “What’s good for the herd is good for the bird.”

The veracity of the saying, deployed often in discussion about sage grouse conservation, is up for debate. Just recently, WyoFile reported on a new analysis suggesting that livestock grazing can have harmful effects on the chicken-sized grouse, not beneficial ones.

That debate won’t be resolved today. On occasions, however, sage grouse and cattle tolerate each other just fine.

A WyoFile reporter stumbled into the two species cohabitating recently while coming out of the Wind River Range. Confronted by a photographer, the flock fled on foot, headed right for the herd, then continued along into the sagebrush sea.

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