Conservation

Wyoming Republican Gov. Mark Gordon has issued an executive order (EO) on the greater sage grouse, reupping the state’s efforts to marry conservation objectives and economic activity including energy development.

Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke on Thursday ordered a review of the federal Greater Sage Grouse Conservation Plans to see if they are in any way restricting energy production on public lands.

With implications for oil/natural gas drilling as well as mining, the U.S. District Court for Colorado on Tuesday agreed with various environmental groups that the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) needs to protect two threatened wildflowers that live solely on an oil shale formation in Colorado and Utah.

The United States needs “a major course correction” in its approach to conservation, according to U.S. Secretary of the Interior Sally Jewell, who on Tuesday outlined a long-term overview and plans for the rest of the year which include reviews of previous land use decisions.

The United States needs “a major course correction” in its approach to conservation, according to U.S. Secretary of the Interior Sally Jewell, who on Tuesday outlined a long-term overview and plans for the rest of the year which include reviews of previous land use decisions.

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) on Monday signaled its intention to revise its mitigation policy to a state-supported landscape-level model for the greater sage grouse that was established last year (see Daily GPI,Sept. 22, 2015).

Efforts by western states and the energy industry to enhance habitat protections for the greater sage grouse should benefit from the recently unveiled U.S. Department of Interior (DOI) Natural Resource Investment Center, said Secretary Sally Jewell.

The Pennsylvania Supreme Court said it would a hear a case that challenges the way the state manages oil and natural gas development on its publicly-owned forest land and how revenue from those operations can be allocated.

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) erred in spring 2014 when it listed the lesser prairie-chicken (LPC) as a “threatened” species, a U.S. District Court judge in Texas ruled. FWS failed to properly consider efforts implemented by states to protect the bird and failed to follow its own rules when arriving at the listing designation, he said.