Feds drop 2020 review of sage grouse status

(Update: Feds drop planned 2020 review of sage grouse status)

BILLINGS, Mont. (AP) – Federal officials have dropped plans to conduct a five-year status review of a jeopardized bird species as the Trump administration seeks to weaken its habitat protections.

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service said in 2015 that the greater sage grouse was not a threatened or endangered species but pledged to revisit the issue in five years.

Spokeswoman Jennifer Strickland told The Associated Press Wednesday the agency is not legally required to complete a review, which can be a first step toward determining if greater protections are needed.

Strickland says the agency instead will work with state wildlife officials to document the effectiveness of conservation plans for the bird.

The Trump administration on Thursday advanced a proposal to overhaul those conservation plans and lift restrictions on oil and gas drilling in grouse habitat.

Land management plans released Thursday would allow more waivers for drilling to encroach into the bird’s habitat.

That would reverse protections for greater sage grouse enacted in 2015, under President Barack Obama. Critics warn it could doom the birds.

Trump and Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke have vowed to open more public lands to drilling. Grouse protections have long been viewed by companies as an obstacle to development.

The ground-dwelling birds are known for an elaborate mating ritual and range across portions of 11 states. Habitat loss and disease have decimated some populations.

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BLM Oregon-Washington news release:

BLM PROPOSES INCREASED FLEXIBILITY AND ACCESS IN SAGE-GROUSE PLANS

Proposed amendments would align conservation efforts at state and federal levels

PORTLAND, Ore. – In keeping with Secretary of the Interior Ryan Zinke’s commitment to work closely with states to enhance conservation, the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) today announced the availability of the Final Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) and proposed plan amendments addressing Greater Sage-Grouse conservation on public land in Oregon.

The proposed plan amendments aim to better align BLM resource management plans with state plans for conserving sage-grouse populations, strike a regulatory balance and build trust among neighboring interests in Western communities. The proposed amendments and final EISs also addresses the issues remanded to the agency by a March 31, 2017, order by the U.S. District Court for the District of Nevada, which determined that the BLM had violated the National Environmental Policy Act when it finalized the 2015 Nevada plan.

“We have appreciated the opportunity to work with Governor Brown’s team on a carefully crafted amendment to the 2015 plan,” said Deputy Secretary of the Interior David Bernhardt. “We know the successful conservation of the Greater Sage-Grouse requires the shared stewardship vision of the states, private citizens, landowners and federal land management agencies, including those within the Department of the Interior.

Bernhardt continued, “With today’s action we have leaned forward to address the various sates’ issues, while appropriately ensuring that we will continue to be focused on meaningfully addressing the threats to the Greater Sage-Grouse and making efforts to improve its habitat.”

The BLM developed the plan changes in cooperation with Oregon Governor Kate Brown, state wildlife managers, and other concerned organizations and individuals, largely through the Western Governors Association’s Sage-Grouse Task Force.

“Collaboration is hard work, and I appreciate the efforts by our stakeholders, state agencies and the Department of the Interior to craft an agreement to protect the sage grouse,” Gov. Brown said. “Balancing sage grouse habitat protection and economic development requires mitigation of negative impacts. This agreement is a critical step that marks a shift away from planning toward active conservation and landscape management to protect this iconic species. Oregon’s bounty is beautiful and worth continuing to protect and fight for.”

“Throughout this process we’ve worked with Governor Brown and the affected counties in identifying a targeted plan amendment that simultaneously deals with threats to Greater Sage-Grouse and opens approximately 22,000 acres to livestock grazing,” said Chris McAlear, BLM Oregon/Washington Acting State Director.

The proposed changes refine the previous management plans adopted in 2015. Under the 1976 Federal Land Policy and Management Act (FLPMA), the BLM is required by law to work cooperatively with states on land-use plans and amendments.

In Oregon, the proposed amendments focus on continuing to make public lands designated as Research Natural Areas (RNA) available for livestock grazing. Seventeen permittees currently use parts of 13 RNAs in southeast Oregon, with an estimated annual direct economic impact of $30,000 to the ranches. The amendment process also offers an opportunity for the BLM to align its mitigation requirements under FLPMA with those established under Oregon law.

The BLM has also published Final EISs for lands it manages in Colorado, Idaho, Nevada and northeastern California, Utah and Wyoming.

Publication of the Final EIS and proposed amendments in tomorrow’s Federal Register initiates a 30-day protest period, which will run through January 8, 2019. The Oregon Governor also has 60 days to review the proposed amendments for consistency with state and local laws and regulations. The process will conclude with a Record of Decision following resolution of any protests received during the 30-day review period.

Approval of the Final EIS Proposed Plan Amendment would require amendments to eight current BLM resource management plans: Andrews, Baker, Brothers/LaPine, Lakeview, Southeastern Oregon, Steens, Three Rivers, and Upper Deschutes.

Anyone who participated in the process for the 2018 Oregon Greater Sage-Grouse EIS and who has an interest that is or may be adversely affected by the proposed land use plan amendments in the Final EIS will have the opportunity to protest the proposed plan amendments.

The Final EIS is now available online at https://goo.gl/4CNtH8. Instructions for filing a protest with the Director of the BLM regarding the Proposed RMPA/Final EIS are found online at https://www.blm.gov/programs/planning-and-nepa/public-participation/filing-a-plan-protest. All protests must be in writing and mailed to the appropriate address or submitted electronically through the BLM ePlanning project website. To submit a protest electronically, go to the ePlanning project webpage https://goo.gl/4CNtH8 and follow the instructions at the top of the home page.

If submitting a protest in hard copy, it must be mailed to one of the following addresses:

U.S. Postal Service Mail: BLM Director (210), Attention: Protest Coordinator, WO-210, P.O Box 71383, Washington, D.C. 20024-1383

Overnight Delivery: BLM Director (210), Attention: Protest Coordinator, WO-210,
20 M Street SE, Room 2134LM, Washington, D.C. 20003

Protests submitted electronically by any means other than the ePlanning project website will be invalid unless a protest is also submitted in hard copy. Protests submitted by fax will also be invalid unless also submitted either through ePlanning project website protest section or in hard copy.

Before including your address, phone number, email address, or other personally identifiable information in your comment, you should be aware that your entire comment – including your personally identifiable information – may be made publicly available at any time. While you can ask the BLM in your comment to withhold your personally identifiable information from public review, we cannot guarantee that we will be able to do so.

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News release from the Western Values Project:

Interior’s Bernhardt Overhauls Grouse Plans to Benefit Special Interest Pals

Today’s Mandate Breaks the Deal, a Loss for Westerners, Public Lands, and Wildlife

Whitefish, MT. — Today, the Interior Department’s Bureau of Land Management (BLM) released its plan to mandate an overhaul of state-level habitat management plans for the greater sage-grouse. The revised plan breaks many of the compromises crafted in the 2015 cooperative plans that were finalized under the previous administration.

The overhaul was run by Deputy Secretary of Interior David Bernhardt, a former lobbyist and corporate lawyer.

“David Bernhardt spent years in the private sector advancing the policy goals of special interests who profit of our public lands,” said Jayson O’Neill, Deputy Director of Western Values Project. “Despite his clear conflicts, Zinke put him in charge of ripping apart the plans just to help those very industries that Bernhardt used to work for, all at the expense of habitat, wildlife, and the thousands of Americans who asked Interior to honor the deal and protect our way of life.”

In 2015, the 11 Western states that contain the bird’s habitat agreed to a sage grouse management plan, the result of a collaborative effort between multiple stakeholders that marked the greatest land conservation effort in U.S. history. The Interior Department began reworking the state-level plans in June 2017 to ensure they aligned with Secretary Zinke’s and the Trump administration’s policy of energy dominance. Western Values Project’s analysis of thousands of pages of public documents found extent of industries influence over the entire process.

A recent New York Times story, based in part on Western Values Project research, exposed the extraordinary amount of access that the oil and gas industry had to the Interior officials who were conducting Interior’s sage grouse review last summer, and Interior staff’s willingness to grant industry requests.

Ex-lobbyist turned Interior Deputy David Bernhardt was charged with overseeing the greater sage-grouse management plans overhaul shortly after his controversial confirmation, an assignment that has raised red flags as one of his former lobbying clients, the Independent Petroleum Association of America, was one of the industry groups pushing hardest to have sage grouse protections rolled back. After the review, IPAA even signed onto a letter thanking Bernhardt for his efforts that benefited the oil and gas industry.

Meanwhile, Westerners have been unhappy with the review. In January, co-chairs of the Western Governors Association Matt Mead and John Hickenlooper sent a letter to Deputy Secretary Bernhardt expressing their disappointment that Western states weren’t being included in the changes Interior was making to sage grouse protection efforts.

Americans have submitted over half a million comments urging the Interior Department and the Bureau of Land Management to honor the deal that was agreed to in 2015. Whether or not Interior was valuing public input on the sage grouse review was called into question in March, when it was revealed that nearly 100,000 public comments submitted to BLM hadn’t been counted.

Western Values Project, based in Whitefish, Montana, defends America’s public lands through research and public education in order to hold policymakers and elected leaders accountable for jeopardizing the West’s outdoor heritage.