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With time running out for the imperiled greater sage-grouse, the Bureau of Land Management is making a third attempt to finalize a plan that will save the iconic Western bird. E&E News reports that BLM is targeting the summer of 2023 for the draft management plan, which will cover around 70 million acres of grouse habitat across ten Western states.
The Obama administration's 2015 plan was hailed as a compromise to prevent an endangered species listing of the sage-grouse, but key parts of the plan were weakened in 2019 under President Trump. Those revisions were blocked by the courts.
In the years since the Obama plan, sage-grouse populations have plummeted in several states, as the bird lost habitat to drought, wildfires, and invasive plant species like cheatgrass. Republicans in Congress added a rider to the omnibus spending package passed last month that prevents the Interior Department from using funds to write a rule that would add the sage-grouse to the Endangered Species List.
Vera Smith, senior federal policy lands analyst with Defenders of Wildlife, encouraged the Biden administration to follow the science as it writes the new sage-grouse plan.
“The science tells us that we need stronger conservation now if we are to curtail ongoing habitat loss and get to a place where the sagebrush sea is ecologically sustainable and can support stable populations of grouse and other sagebrush-dependent wildlife,” Smith said.
Burning Man vs. renewable energy
The nonprofit organization that runs Burning Man is suing to stop a renewable energy project in the Nevada desert. A proposed exploration plan would drill up to 13 exploratory geothermal wells on public land near Gerlach, Nevada—a gateway town to Burning Man, which is also held on public lands. The lawsuit to stop the geothermal project says allowing the exploratory wells would lay “the foundation for turning a unique, virtually pristine ecosystem of environmental, historical, and cultural significance into an industrial zone.”
Five years ago, Burning Man found itself in hot water after it left a 747 jumbo jet on the pristine ecosystem mentioned in its lawsuit.
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We never ceded or relinquished our dead. They were stolen.”
