Looking at the Department of the Interior’s decision not to list the greater sage grouse as endangered, one is initially tempted to celebrate, knowing the ruinous consequences that such listings have on local economies. But a closer look at the land-management plan that accompanies the decision brings to mind the story of the Trojan Horse, made famous in Virgil’s Aeneid. You will recall that the large wooden horse was offered by the Greeks to the Trojans, ostensibly as a gift to the goddess Minerva but, in reality concealing a contingent of armed Greeks. Once safely inside Troy’s walls that night, they exited the horse, opened the gates to let in the rest of the waiting Greek army and proceeded to do their worst.

Likewise, the decision not to list, while it may be seen as a long-overdue “gift” to western Colorado from Interior, may in fact bring with it something far less desirable.

The good news is that an endangered listing was, in fact, averted, at least temporarily. An Endangered Species listing is traditionally one of the most injurious hammers in Interior’s arsenal, one that can leave permanent economic scars. Ask the timbermen and ranchers in the Pacific Northwest how fond they are of the Spotted Owl, for instance.

Unfortunately, the good news in this case precedes the bad, in the form of the Bureau of Land Management’s final land-use amendments, soon to be implemented to justify not listing the bird.

In many ways the pending land-management plan is actually worse than an endangered designation would be. The plan calls for extreme and egregious measures to protect the greater sage grouse (which, incidentally, seems to be doing just fine without the BLM posting up “Do Not Disturb” signs all over the place), including calls for extensive buffer zones around real or suspected “leks” (basically, sage grouse bordellos where sage grouslets are made) within which no surface occupancy is allowed. The plan also establishes surface disturbance caps which limit or eliminate any new surface activity, including oil and gas development, grazing, right-of-way construction (power lines and the like), or even wind and solar energy development.

Yes, the Sage Grouse is even powerful enough to displace renewable energy.

Perhaps worse is the fact that these restrictions are based on arbitrary maps that don’t reflect the reality on the ground. Garfield County has long challenged the Fish and Wildlife Service habitat maps, which depict enormous swaths of land as being Priority Habitat, and are therefore subject to the most stringent regulations. The FWS map – referred to disparagingly as the “red blob” – fails to account for the fact that the terrain in Garfield County is naturally fragmented. Within a few miles, one could encounter sage brush, deciduous forest, high desert, and grassland, most of which is not compatible with sage grouse, and yet subject to use limitations purportedly established to protect the bird.

Coloradans should be wary of this latest tactic of the administration to drastically limit use and economic development on federal lands – while appearing to be solicitous. Well constructed and scientifically based local and state conservation plans, far more effective and accurate than federal ones, are still being subordinated by the BLM land use plan, despite the aura of cooperation being cultivated by Interior.

Property owners, land users, and local communities should indeed be grateful that they dodged the endangered species missile. But an equally damaging BLM land-use plan is waiting in the wings, much like the Greeks in their wooden horse. And we all know how that turned out for the Trojans.

Kelly Sloan is a Grand Junction-based political and public affairs consultant, journalist and is a Centennial Institute fellow in energy policy.