GILLETTE, Wyo. — Federal land managers have unveiled a draft plan to strengthen greater sage grouse conservation and management on public lands.
The draft plan, unveiled on March 14, is based on the best available science and stakeholder input to build on decades of effort in maintaining, protecting and restoring healthy sagebrush habitat, according to the Bureau of Land Management, which manages the largest sage grouse habitat in the United States — roughly 67 million acres.
Offering a range of alternatives for sustainable management of these lands, the draft plan builds on the most successful components of the plans adopted in 2015 and updated in 2019, BLM says. It incorporates new sage grouse conservation science and learned lessons to accommodate changing resource conditions while increasing implementation flexibility.
Additionally, the plan balances a consistent management approach across the range while addressing conditions and policies unique to individual states, per the BLM, which hopes the plan will allow the agency to work more effectively with state and local managers to protect and improve sagebrush habitats on public lands.
The plan also ensures other multiple uses of BLM sagebrush lands — including clean energy projects — advance in a manner that limits impacts to sensitive resources and aids in combating climate change, which the agency says is a main driver of greater sage grouse habitat loss.
Per the BLM, greater sage grouse rely on sagebrush lands for all life cycle aspects, including seasonal needs for food, cover and reproduction. A local population could need up to 40 square miles of intact habitat to stay healthy. Through habitat loss, sage grouse populations once in the millions now number fewer than 800,000.
“The majesty of the West and its way of life are at stake. Sagebrush lands are places where people work and play, and they are the headwaters for the West’s major rivers,” BLM Director Tracy Stone-Manning said in a statement. “Joint efforts to conserve the greater sage grouse and its habitat led to the largest collaborative conservation effort in our history, and we are building on that work, together with our partners, to ensure the health of these lands and local economies into the future.”
According to BLM, protecting and restoring sagebrush on its public lands across the West is critical not only for greater sage grouse, but also for the health of western communities and other species iconic to the region that rely on sagebrush, such as mule deer, pronghorn and pygmy rabbits.
The agency will hold 13 public meetings to answer questions and take comments on the draft alternatives and analysis. When and where the meetings will take place will be posted on the BLM website.
