GRAND JUNCTION — A federal agency says rebuilding a sage-grouse population found only in Colorado and Utah could take more than 50 years and cost nearly $561 million. The Daily Sentinel reported Saturday that the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has released a draft recovery plan for the Gunnison sage-grouse, which is listed as a threatened species. […]
Gunnison sage grouse
Posted inColoradans, Energy, Environment, News, Outdoors, Politics and Government
Scattering BLM will be good for policy, boss William Pendley says. Not with him at the helm, advocacy groups argue.
Colorado will get more of the Bureau of Land Management’s Washington staff under the Trump administration’s proposed agency reorganization than any other Western state — but whether those employees will have decision-making authority is a hotly contested point. The plan involves scattering almost 300 positions, some currently unfilled, across 11 Western states. Of the 222 […]
Posted inBusiness, Environment, Growth, News, Outdoors
Trump administration takes steps to open public lands to drilling by easing sage grouse protections
By Matthew Brown, Associated Press BILLINGS, Mont. — The Trump administration moved forward Thursday with plans to ease restrictions on oil and natural gas drilling, mining and other activities that were put in place to protect an imperiled bird species across millions of acres in the American West. Land management documents released by the U.S. […]
Posted inBusiness, Crime and Courts, Environment, News, Outdoors, Politics and Government
Federal judge upholds endangered species list protections for Gunnison sage grouse
By Dan Elliot, The Associated Press A rare bird found only in Colorado and Utah will stay on the endangered species list, at least for now, a U.S. district judge said Friday. The judge upheld a 2014 decision by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to protect the Gunnison sage grouse as a threatened species […]