Katie Fite crouched behind some waist-high sagebrush, and her dog Bell nestled in the plant’s cozy cavity to shield from howling winds. It was the first Saturday in April, peak mating season for sage grouse on a remote stretch of the Oregon-Nevada border. From where Fite and her dog sat, they could see more than a dozen male grouse displaying their tail feathers and issuing their signature zip-popping call to bring all the girls to the yard. All around the lek — the flat, open areas where sage grouse congregate during mating season — were wooden stakes marking where mining companies may one day scrape away this ... (full story)