Grouse

Wyoming Gov. Matt Mead on Thursday directed his state’s attorney general to intervene in support of the federal agencies targeted by a lawsuit in U.S. District Court in Idaho by four environmental groups that don’t like the greater sage grouse state-federal protection strategy hammered out last year (see Daily GPI,Sept. 22, 2015).

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).

A Wyoming coalition of counties and conservation groups last Monday filed a lawsuit in U.S. District Court of Wyoming in Cheyenne, challenging efforts to protect the greater sage grouse over parts of 11 western states, including Wyoming, where Gov. Matt Mead has embraced the efforts (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.

Counties and mining interests in Nevada have filed a lawsuit in a federal district court in Reno, NV, seeking to block the historic state-federal agreement protecting the greater sage grouse by restricting development in designated habitat areas in a state-administered program (see Daily GPI, Sept. 22).

Following last month’s milestone decision to keep the beleaguered greater sage grouse off the endangered species listing, federal agencies in Utah have temporarily closed more than 233,000 acres of public and national forest lands for up to two years while they determine if the lands’ importance to the ground-based bird habitat is such that they should be made off limits for a longer period.

In the wake of the milestone decision by federal officials to not list the greater sage grouse as endangered or threatened, Wyoming Gov. Matt Mead late Tuesday said he intends to pursue a regional initiative to reform the Endangered Species Act (ESA) as incoming Western Governors’ Association (WGA) chairman.

In a milestone decision that the energy industry, state political leaders and environmentalists all support, the Obama administration on Tuesday decided to protect the greater sage grouse with public-private conservation programs at the state level and not through listing of the ground-dwelling bird under the Endangered Species Act (ESA). It amounts to the largest land conservation effort ever undertaken, according to Interior Secretary Sally Jewell.

In a milestone decision that the energy industry, state political leaders and environmentalists all support, the Obama administration on Tuesday decided to protect the greater sage grouse with public-private conservation programs at the state level and not through listing of the ground-dwelling bird under the Endangered Species Act (ESA). It amounts to the largest land conservation effort ever undertaken, according to Interior Secretary Sally Jewell.