The Interior Department orders a review of sage grouse plans

Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke announced yesterday a major review of 2015 sage grouse conservation plans. The plans, spanning 70 million acres and 10 Western states, represent an unprecedented compromise between the federal government and states over how to manage public lands to protect the imperiled bird while also allowing for energy development and other uses. Zinke’s new order requires a review to determine whether the Obama-era plans gave states enough say, and whether they inappropriately block extractive industry. “There have been complaints by several of the governors that their ability to use federal lands, whether it’s for oil and gas, recreation, timber, across the board, that some of the heavy-handedness on habitat doesn’t allow for some of those uses,” Zinke said during a press call on Wednesday. “We just want to make sure first and foremost we work hand in hand with the states.” Yet the 2015 plans now under review took five years to create and were in fact the product of input from an array of stakeholders, including state officials, ranchers, environmentalists, oil and gas representatives, and federal agencies. For many stakeholders, the sweeping conservation effort was a way to avoid listing the sage grouse under the Endangered Species Act, which would likely have led to stricter regulations on land use in the bird’s habitat.