Lawsuit Filed Over Management of Sage Grouse Habitat

Conservation groups claim the Bureau of Land Management broke the law when it approved eight large oil and gas lease sales in Idaho, Montana, Nevada, Utah and Wyoming.  In response a suit was filed Monday in federal court.  The suit came after the BLM relaxed protections for greater sage grouse habitat.  Laird Lucas, with Advocates for the West, is the lead attorney on the case.  He said so far under the Trump administration he's only seen the pendulum swinging toward energy development without regard for wildlife.

“We're trying to get the pendulum to go back, because that's what the laws say, that you have to have a balance there. And this administration is not acting in accordance with the law. We need to have balance in how public lands are managed."

Lucas said after a decade of work by federal, state and local leaders along with ranchers, energy companies and other stakeholders, a comprehensive land-use plan was put in place to save sage grouse.  He added the population of the grouse when travels across much of the western U.S. has declined by as much as 95% from historic levels.

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