Sage-grouse often add to the peacefulness of my walks in the foothills around Boise. I walk along eyes closed taking in the sage brush aroma and listening to all of the sounds. Of course, I hear crickets, and sometimes birds are rustling in the bushes. Other times I hear and then spot a rabbit racing under some brush. The sage grouse captivate me with its blooping noises, drumming like sounds and odd turkey-like appearance. Whenever I see one I feel lucky because it doesn’t happen very often and I am hopeful that its presence is a sign that the area in which it lives is healthy.

Once plentiful in the west, they were described by Lewis and Clark in their 1804 expedition. They are large birds that can grow up to 30 in. in length and two feet tall. Sage-grouse cannot live without sage brush and in the wintertime, their diet is 99% of sage brush leaves and buds. So many different wild species rely on sage brush for their existence: larks, burrowing owls, sage sparrows, sage thrashers, loggerhead shrikes and pygmy rabbits.

Though my walks through the sage brush aren’t near the Murphy Complex area, I couldn’t help but wonder about the devastation that had taken place after the considerable fires swept through that region. I followed all the hubbub of who was to blame—ranchers vs. environmentalists—but what really mattered were those species that had been affected by the fire. So, I looked at the Murphy Complex post-fire pictures at the WWP website. As I expected, parts of it reminded me of the Viking Lander images of Mars: desolate, empty and barren of any life. There were large ashen regions with no wildlife, no sage-brush, dry creek beds, and much to my surprise; many of the pictures had cows in them. This meant to me that whatever plant and animal life was left in the area would be further distressed by grazing cows. I couldn’t help but ask: doesn’t anyone there have an ecological conscience?

My chagrin, I’m sure, is not due to an overflowing ecological conscience to the other extreme.

Aldo Leopold, my favorite conservationist, believed that conservation must spring from a conviction of what is ethically and esthetically right. He said:”A thing is right only when it tends to preserve the integrity, stability and beauty of the community and the community includes soil, waters, fauna, and flora, as well as people.” The economic uses of land without the balancing of conservation strategies is exactly what Leopold would count as evidence of neither a land ethic nor ecological conscience.

Invasive non-native grasses precipitated conditions for the fire: cheat grass, drought-like conditions and heat. The spread of cheat grass was aided by the presence of cattle and range “improvements” supporting cattle grazing where there is virtually no water. So, this use of the land that was not balanced by wise conservation strategies produced even a greater economic burden for taxpayers in order to pay for the man-power and materials to extinguish the series of fires in the region.

Sage-grouse won’t be thriving in the Murphy Complex area for a long time. I doubt anyone will be taking walks to enjoy the esthetic and ethical balance of the land there for quite a long time.

Erin Anchustegui teaches philosophy at Boise State University She has a Ph. D in philosophy and does research in environmental ethics.