For immediate release: 16 January 2025
Media contacts:
- Erik Molvar, Western Watersheds Project (307) 399-7910; emolvar@westernwatersheds.org
- Randi Spivak, Center for Biological Diversity (310) 779-4894 rspivak@biologicaldiversity.
org - Steve Holmer, American Bird Conservancy (202) 888-7490; sholmer@abcbirds.org
- Joanna Zhang, WildEarth Guardians (573) 529-6027; jzhang@wildearthguardians.org
Biden Administration Rolls Out Two Sage Grouse Plans, Continuing Inadequate, Piecemeal Protection for this At-Risk Species
WASHINGTON – The Biden Administration rolled out its decisions to amend Bureau of Land Management land use plans in greater sage grouse habitat in Oregon and Colorado today, and signaled its intentions to leave the decisions affecting the five key states of Wyoming, Idaho, Montana, Utah, and Nevada to the Trump administration.
“The new Biden plans leave the first Trump administration’s gutting of sage grouse conservation largely in place,” said Erik Molvar, Executive Director of Western Watersheds Project. “The sagebrush sea needs consistent, science-based protections to safeguard sage grouse, other wildlife, and irreplaceable recreation lands – not this politicized crazy-quilt of loopholes and half-measures that sell out western public lands to the special interests. All Americans who love the West will suffer the consequences of the Biden administration’s spectacular failure to do much of anything.”
“This ecosystem is unraveling, and the focus on appeasing special interests and states looking for loopholes is another blow to the bird and its habitat,” said Steve Holmer of American Bird Conservancy. “The sage grouse and sagebrush sea need better plans with designated protected areas to start recovering.”
“The Bureau had four years to establish meaningful, lasting protections for these imperiled birds, but instead it’s capitulated to extractive industries and left final decisions to the Trump administration’s ‘drill baby drill’ agenda,” said Randi Spivak, public lands policy director at the Center for Biological Diversity. “When the Sagebrush Sea is drilled, fracked, bulldozed, mined and grazed, it harms hundreds of other native species who rely on these lands. The heartbreaking decline of greater sage grouse and their habitat is bad news for all these animals, whose wellbeing is connected to our own.”
“The sage-grouse is a symbol of the American West, and without stronger range wide protections, it could vanish from our landscapes forever,” said Joanna Zhang, endangered species advocate with WildEarth Guardians. “Protecting sage-grouse is not just about saving a species—it’s about safeguarding the health of the sagebrush sea, especially in the face of Trump’s plans for energy dominance.”
The new plan amendments apply only to Colorado and Oregon, with an announcement that additional plan amendments for California and the Dakotas are forthcoming. That means that sage grouse habitats in Nevada, Idaho, Wyoming, Montana, and Utah will continue to be subject to existing management.
The new plans make only very slight changes to previous sage grouse plans. In Colorado, there is some tinkering with oil and gas waivers, exceptions, and modifications, and development thresholds, while Priority Habitat Management Areas are expanded by about 49,000 acres and Linkage Management Areas are restored, but without serious habitat protections applied. In Oregon, most Research Natural Areas are reopened to livestock grazing despite the scientific need for a livestock-free baseline for sage grouse habitats. Both states initiate a Causal Factor Analysis when sage grouse habitats don’t meet livestock-related habitat objectives, but the only consequence of failing to meet objectives is a requirement to consider (but not necessarily implement) an alternative to correct the problem. In Oregon, the new plans potentially include grazing lessees in the position of determining whether cattle are the cause of documented habitat degradation, despite their conflict of interest. Both plans exclude Priority Habitats from large-scale renewable energy project siting, but don’t do the same for oil and gas development.
###
