The notice also responded to an Aug. 4 report DOI officials prepared in response to an order Sec. Ryan Zinke issued on June 7 in response to concerns expressed to him regarding the 2015 plans. It recommended continued collaboration with the governments of the 10 states in which the greater sage grouse is found, both through the Greater Sage Grouse Task Force and between each governor’s office and the respective BLM state director and US Forest Service regional forester.
“This report also recommends engagement on the issues and options identified in this report with congressional delegations, counties, local governments, and tribes, as well as with ranchers, industry, conservation groups, and other stakeholders,” it said. “This additional engagement would be used to refine the options and develop a plan for prioritized implementation of the options in this report.”
In Denver, Western Energy Alliance Pres. Kathleen Sgamma welcomed the news. “The plans discouraged on-the-ground, local conservation efforts and ignored state plans, except for Wyoming’s, in favor of a top-down, one-size-fits-all approach,” Sgamma said. “The attitude of this Interior Department, which is much more interested in real collaboration with states and counties, is welcome after the prior administration’s process that ignored real threats to sage grouse and exaggerated impacts from human activities.”
Oil and gas measures in the plans were unnecessarily draconian, and disregarded the hundreds of measures that companies have implemented to protect sage grouse, Sgamma said. “The plans inflated the impacts from oil and gas activities by completely ignoring the technological innovation and best practices implemented over the last decade that have resulted in 70% less habitat fragmentation,” she said.
Contact Nick Snow at [email protected].