The effort was lauded as an example of how 21st century conservation should work.īut not everyone was happy. In 2015, Obama's Interior Department announced that the bird did not need protections under the ESA. That spurred a multi-year conservation effort by a broad coalition of interest groups, ranging from government agencies, to energy producers and environmental groups, aimed at keeping the bird off of the endangered species list by putting adequate protections in place.
Fish and Wildlife Service determined in 2010 that the greater sage grouse warranted protections under the Endangered Species Act (ESA), a move that was projected to cause $5.6 billion in lost economic output. Scientists consider the charismatic bird, famous for its strange mating dance, to be an "indicator" species - the canary in the coal mine, so to speak - for the larger ecosystem's health. Greater sage grouse live in 11 Western states, from North Dakota to California, in the sagebrush steppe. "Do they do it in exactly the same way, no? We made some change in the plans and got rid of some things that are simply not necessary."Ĭonservation and wildlife groups argue that the changes could further endanger the imperiled bird and other species in the seemingly desolate habitat it calls home. "I completely believe that these plans are leaning forward on the conservation of sage grouse," Interior Deputy Secretary David Bernhardt told The Associated Press.
The Interior Department says the changes are being made to enhance cooperation with Western states, some of which were critical of the Obama-era plans, and that protections for the bird will remain intact. The long-anticipated proposals, released Thursday by the Bureau of Land Management, would revise a sweeping conservation effort made under the Obama administration, allowing for more development in the chicken-sized bird's vast habitat. The Trump administration has released plans to lift or alter habitat protections for the greater sage grouse across millions of acres of Western land. The Trump administration is revising conservation plans for the greater sage grouse, an imperiled Western bird, in seven U.S.
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