sage grouse
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Bureau of Land Management’s do-over search for environmental records satisfied law, court says
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Two years after she ordered the Bureau of Land Management to redo its search for documents in response to an environmental group’s open records request, a federal judge now agrees the agency largely complied with the order. U.S. Magistrate Judge Kristen L. Mix originally found BLM did not fulfill its obligations under the Freedom of…
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US to ease oil drilling controls protecting imperiled bird in Colorado, other Western states
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BILLINGS, Mont. – The Trump administration moved forward Thursday with plans to ease restrictions on oil and natural gas drilling and other activities across millions of acres in the American West – including Colorado – that were put in place to protect an imperiled bird species. Land management documents released by the U.S. Interior Department show the administration…
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More state control of wildlife conservation examined at U.S. Senate hearing
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WASHINGTON – A U.S. Senate committee is considering legislative options to boost support for state programs to protect threatened wildlife like the sage grouse. The Senate Environment and Public Works Committee held a hearing Wednesday to examine state conservation and wildlife management programs. The hearing was partly a response to complaints by state officials –…
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Judge orders US to revive public role in energy leases on sage-grouse lands
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BILLINGS, Mont. – A federal judge has ordered the reinstatement of public participation opportunities in oil and gas lease sales in Western states that were largely eliminated by the Trump administration to speed up sales. U.S. Magistrate Judge Ronald Bush in a Friday ruling sided with environmentalists who sued in April out of concerns that…
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Tipton bill to protect landowners near federal property wins first approval
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WASHINGTON – A congressional bill to protect property owners’ rights during federal land acquisitions won first round approval Thursday but drew only cautious support from a major Colorado environmental group. The bill was introduced by Colorado U.S. Rep. Scott Tipton, R-Cortez, who is a member of the House Natural Resources subcommittee on federal lands. The…
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Hickenlooper, other governors: Ban on land deals could hurt beleaguered sage-grouse
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Colorado’s John Hickenlooper and other western-state governors say a new Trump administration directive threatens to undermine a hard-won compromise aimed at saving a beleaguered bird scattered across their region. The directive, issued in late July, severely limits a type of land swap involving federal property. Critics say that eliminates an important technique for saving habitat…
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OUT WEST ROUNDUP: Polygamous town picks outsider as police chief
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Utah Polygamous town under scrutiny picks outsider as chief SALT LAKE CITY – A polygamous community on the Utah-Arizona border has hired an outsider as its new police chief, selecting a retired Salt Lake City area police officer with no ties to the fundamentalist Mormon group that controlled the town for a century until federal…
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Colorado Sierra Club endorses Jared Polis in governor’s race
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The Colorado Sierra Club threw its weight behind Democrat Jared Polis in the four-way gubernatorial primary on Thursday, citing the five-term congressman’s record on environmental and climate change policy and his pledge to move the state toward 100-percent renewable energy sources over the next two decades. The environmental group, which counts more than 100,000 members…
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Private landowners poised to make — not break — sage grouse’s recovery
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If you’ve farmed, ranched or owned land in the West, you’ve probably participated in a few discussions about the greater sage-grouse and its imperiled habitat. After two years of relative quiet on this front, Department of Interior (DOI) Secretary Ryan Zinke rekindled the debate last fall by opening up for public comment the 2015 agreement…
