Free Republic

The sage grouse population has exploded in the last two years, growing by nearly two-thirds from more than 49,000 males in 2013 to more than 80,000 this year. ... This is encouraging news for the bird, and for the people whose lives would be turned upside down by the federal government if it still insists on listing the critter as an endangered species on the brink of extinction. The report considered the population across the bird’s 11-state habitat, with specific news on the growth in Colorado numbers ... The report falls on the heels of a gloom and doom forecast...

The Obama administration is establishing new to limits on public land uses in 10 Western states to protect the habitat of the ground dwelling greater sage grouse. The federal efforts are an attempt to prevent a continued decline in sage grouse numbers which could necessitate listing the sage grouse as threatened or endangered. The new limits are the federal government's biggest land-planning effort to date to conserve a single species. The proposal would affect energy development. Among other actions, the regulations would require oil and gas wells to be clustered in groups of a half-dozen or more to avoid scattering...

The U.S. Department of the Interior should do all it can to keep open the Colowyo coal mine in northwest Colorado, U.S. Rep. Scott Tipton and Sen. Cory Gardner, both Colorado Republicans, said in a letter to Interior Secretary Sally Jewell. ... Colowyo Mine employs 220 people in Moffat and Rio Blanco counties and has a payroll of about $20 million, Tipton wrote to Jewell, asking that Interior react quickly to a federal court ruling that could force closure of the mine. “The adverse effects of shutting down this mine go beyond the jobs at the mine that would be...

Garfield County officials said Monday the Bureau of Land Management is considering even-stricter measures to protect greater sage-grouse than previously contemplated, rather than listening to concerns the county and others have raised. As a cooperating agency, the county got an advance look Friday at the revised proposal the agency is now considering. “It is very dramatic in terms of the changes (from a draft BLM proposal) that are being proposed,” Fred Jarman, the county’s community development director, told county commissioners Monday. Jarman and Garfield Commissioner Tom Jankovsky said the proposed measures are the result of directives coming from Washington, D.C....

Efforts to protect the greater sage grouse in its 11-state territory are multiplying, according to a report from the Western Governors’ Association released Thursday, and Northwest Colorado’s sage grouse population is seeing significant growth as a result. The report is a comprehensive inventory of public and private conservation initiatives in 2014 throughout the bird’s range in 11 western states, including Colorado. Northwest Colorado is home to about two thirds of the state’s greater sage grouse population, which grew by 30 percent from 2013 to 2014, according to Senior Wildlife Biologist Brad Petch with Colorado Parks and Wildlife. ... Moffat, Routt...

The Western Governors' Association released a report today highlighting the voluntary efforts in 11 states to conserve the habitat of sage-grouse as part of an effort to avoid a federal listing of the bird under the Endangered Species Act (ESA). The association, which represents the governors of 19 Western states, said that “the breadth and depth of voluntary conservation efforts across the region, if allowed to run their course, will provide the bird with the necessary habitat to live and thrive.” The greater sage grouse is found in 11 states and its habitat encompasses 186 million acres . The U.S....

predation, not human activity, has reduced bird’s numbers. A coalition of rural Western counties and business interests is contesting the science being used to decide whether to list the Greater sage-grouse as endangered or threatened, accusing the Obama administration of relying on “selective, false and biased” research. Denver attorney Kent Holsinger filed three Data Quality Act challenges Wednesday with the Department of the Interior on behalf of the coalition, which includes the Western Energy Alliance, ranchers, mining and drilling companies and 19 counties in Colorado, Montana, Nevada and Utah. “We’ve documented real issues with transparency and scientific integrity ... The...

Mesa County commissioners have thrown their first jab in a growing fight against the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service over the department’s decision last November to list the Gunnison sage-grouse as a threatened species. Commissioners on Monday approved and signed a notice of intent to sue the federal government for listing the Gunnison sage-grouse as threatened and for designating a critical habitat for the bird in western Colorado and eastern Utah. The notice of intent to sue claims the listings are improper because the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service noted the Gunnison sage-grouse population in the Gunnison Basin is “stable...

According to findings from The Tombstone Marshal’s Office (TMO), a Bureau of Land Management (BLM) officer was mistaken for a man impersonating an officer.. On January 28th, while traveling east on Charleston Road, a sixteen year old driver reported to the Tombstone Marshal’s Office that she observed a male driver in a white truck look at her as he passed and then turned around and begin travelling eastbound behind her before pulling her over with emergency lights flashing on the dashboard. The female advised that she pulled to the side road and the male exited his vehicle and approached her...

Mesa County commissioners on Tuesday directed Mesa County Attorney Patrick Coleman to draft a notice of intent to sue the federal government over the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service’s listing of the Gunnison sage-grouse as a threatened species. Gunnison County filed its own notice of intent in December to bring civil action against the Fish and Wildlife Service for, the county believes, improperly listing the bird as a threatened species and naming Gunnison County and acreage in a handful of other Colorado and Utah counties, including Mesa, as critical habitat for the sage-grouse. Mesa County decided to follow with its...

Two environmentalist groups filed suit Tuesday seeking stronger protection for a bird found only in Colorado and Utah ... The Center for Biological Diversity and the Western Watersheds Project said in court papers that the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service should go back and produce an “adequate finding” on the status of the Gunnison sage grouse ... The threatened designation could result in restrictions on oil and gas drilling, agriculture, recreational and other land uses. ... both camps will be watching litigation closely, in part to see how it might influence policy on the more common greater sage grouse. The...

Washington, DC – Secretary of the Interior Sally Jewell today issued a Secretarial Order calling for a comprehensive science-based strategy to address the more frequent and intense wildfires that are damaging vital sagebrush landscapes and productive rangelands, particularly in the Great Basin region of Idaho, Utah, Nevada, Oregon and California. The strategy will begin to be implemented during the 2015 fire season. Goals include reducing the size, severity and cost of rangeland fires, addressing the spread of cheatgrass and other invasive species, and positioning wildland fire management resources for more effective rangeland fire response. “Targeted action is urgently needed to...

U.S. wildlife officials will decide next year whether a wide-ranging Western bird species needs protections even though Congress has blocked such protections from taking effect, Interior Secretary Sally Jewell said Wednesday. They could determine the greater sage grouse is heading toward possible extinction, but they would be unable to intervene under the Endangered Species Act. The bird’s fate instead remains largely in the hands of the 11 individual states where they are found. President Barack Obama signed a $1.1 trillion spending bill late Tuesday with a provision that barred money from being spent on rules to protect the chicken-sized bird...

DENVER — Colorado Gov. John Hickenlooper made good Friday on his promise to sue the federal government over its hotly contested move to list the Gunnison sage grouse under the Endangered Species Act. The Colorado Attorney General’s office filed a notice of intent to sue with Interior Secretary Sally Jewell and Fish and Wildlife Service director Daniel M. Ashe, arguing that the agency’s Nov. 12 decision to list the bird as threatened was flawed and failed to appreciate fully the impact of aggressive state and local conservation efforts. “The Service failed to use the best available science in its listing...

Bowie Resource Partners says it has eliminated 150 jobs at the Bowie #2 coal mine near Paonia. ... Last year the shutdown of another mine in the region caused nearly 300 people to lose their jobs. That coal mine is in Somerset. In the release, Bowie says it will provide the 150 laid off workers with 60 days of wages and benefits.

Sales of leases on 8.1 million acres of federal oil and gas parcels — an area larger than Massachusetts and Rhode Island combined — are on hold because of worries that drilling could harm greater sage grouse... the U.S. Bureau of Land Management’s delay on the parcels underscores just how much is at stake for an industry that finds its future inextricably intertwined with a bird once known primarily for its elaborate mating display. The grouse’s huge range, covering portions of 11 states and an area more than four times as big as New England, includes vast oil, gas and...

Federal wildlife officials have granted protection to the Gunnison sage grouse, a move that could to bring restrictions on oil and gas drilling and other land uses to preserve the bird's habitat in Colorado and Utah. ... They're related to the greater sage grouse, which is at the center of a separate and larger debate over federal protection across 11 Western states.

Kansas – A federal judge has decided a lawsuit challenging increased federal regulation of economic activity and land use in the area that is habitat for the Lesser Prairie Chicken will be litigated in Oklahoma and not transferred to Washington, D.C., Kansas Attorney General Derek Schmidt said today. The decision yesterday by U.S. District Judge James H. Payne is the second time in the last two months that the federal judiciary has rejected an attempt by the federal government to move the litigation from Oklahoma to Washington, D.C. “This is good news for Kansas,” Schmidt said. “It means our case...

A new study shows the lesser prairie chicken population has exploded by 20 percent prompting concern by western lawmakers that the Obama administration acted hastily when it listed the bird as threatened under the Endangered Species Act. The aerial survey conducted last month by the Western Association of Fish and Wildlife Agencies showed the grouse species numbers jumped from 18,747 to 22,415. That study plus the Agriculture Department’s tardiness in reporting conservation efforts to Congress as required by law prompted a letter from lawmakers including Colorado Republican Rep. Scott Tipton demanding the report. “We request that your department provide this...

The fate of a chicken-size bird carries huge economic and political stakes across the West. The sage grouse, long a threat to the thriving energy sector, is also a threat to Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid. The ground-dwelling bird, which has habitat across Nevada and 10 other states, could be listed as a threatened or endangered species as soon as next year. Such a designation would place burdensome restrictions on the use of tens of millions of acres by ranchers, farmers, and oil and natural gas producers. Environmental organizations that want a halt to ranching and fossil fuel development are...