Morning Ag Clips logo
  • Subscribe ❯
  • PORTAL ❯
  • LOGIN ❯
  • By Keyword
  • By topic
  • By state
  • Home
  • Events
  • Jobs
  • Store
  • Advertise
  • Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Skip to footer
  • Subscribe to our
    daily email
    ❯
  • Portal Registration❯
  • Login❯
  • policy
  • tractors & machinery
  • education
  • conservation
  • webinars
  • business
  • dairy
  • cattle
  • poultry
  • swine
  • corn
  • soybeans
  • organic
  • specialty crops
  • Alabama
  • Alaska
  • Arizona
  • Arkansas
  • California
  • Colorado
  • Connecticut
  • Delaware
  • Florida
  • Georgia
  • Hawaii
  • Idaho
  • Illinois
  • Indiana
  • Iowa
  • Kansas
  • Kentucky
  • Louisiana
  • Maine
  • Maryland
  • Massachusetts
  • Michigan
  • Minnesota
  • Mississippi
  • Missouri
  • Montana
  • Nebraska
  • Nevada
  • New Hampshire
  • New Jersey
  • New Mexico
  • New York
  • North Carolina
  • North Dakota
  • Ohio
  • Oklahoma
  • Oregon
  • Pennsylvania
  • Rhode Island
  • South Carolina
  • South Dakota
  • Tennessee
  • Texas
  • Utah
  • Vermont
  • Virginia
  • Washington
  • West Virginia
  • Wisconsin
  • Wyoming

Morning Ag Clips

  • By Keyword
  • By topic
  • By state
  • policy
  • tractors & machinery
  • education
  • conservation
  • webinars
  • business
  • dairy
  • cattle
  • poultry
  • swine
  • corn
  • soybeans
  • organic
  • specialty crops
  • Home
  • Events
  • Jobs
  • Store
  • Advertise
Home » Sage grouse land management plan changes
AMENDMENTS PROPOSED ... Comments

Sage grouse land management plan changes

Changes strive to improve the clarity, efficiency, and implementation of current plans

PUBLISHED ON August 3, 2019

Male greater sage-grouse struts at lek (dancing or mating grounds) to attract females near Bodie, California. (Jeannie Stafford/USFS, Pacific Southwest Region USFWS via Flickr)
Male greater sage-grouse struts at lek (dancing or mating grounds) to attract females near Bodie, California. (Jeannie Stafford/USFS, Pacific Southwest Region USFWS via Flickr)
U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Sonny Perdue announced the U.S. Department of Agriculture's (USDA) Forest Service proposed changes to how the agency manages greater sage grouse in Colorado, Idaho, Nevada, Wyoming, and Utah after hearing concerns from states and land users. (Jeannie Stafford/USFS, Pacific Southwest Region USFWS via Flickr)

WASHINGTON — U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Sonny Perdue announced the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) Forest Service proposed changes to how the agency manages greater sage grouse in Colorado, Idaho, Nevada, Wyoming, and Utah after hearing concerns from states and land users. The changes strive to improve the clarity, efficiency, and implementation of the current sage grouse plans.

“The Forest Service continues to promote our multiple use mission while ensuring conservation of greater sage grouse habitat,” Secretary Perdue said. “We are sharing the stewardship of the lands with western state governors – their extensive participation throughout this process was the key to landscape-scale conservation that aligns our policies and practices across local, state, and federal jurisdictions.”

The Forest Service published the final environmental impact statement in the Federal Register, and the objection period will last 60 days from the date of the publication of the notice of availability. After considering objections, the Forest Service intends to continue the planning process by issuing a final decision document regarding the revised plan amendments in the fall of 2019.

Background:
Greater sage grouse populations have been impacted by a variety of threats including the loss of habitat from wildfire and the spread of invasive weeds like cheat grass. In 2015, the USDA’s Forest Service, along with the Department of Interior’s Bureau of Land Management, amended land management plans in an attempt to address threats and improve habitat conservation for greater sage grouse.

Stakeholders have since raised concerns that the 2015 plans would impact economic growth and did not align with conservation plans laid out by the states. To address these concerns, USDA engaged in an historic collaboration effort to build partnerships between state and local governments, ranchers, universities, non-profit groups, and businesses in order to better align changes to the 2015 plans with stakeholder knowledge.

USDA applied lessons-learned and concerns voiced by a diverse set of stakeholders, including grazers and other land users, in the 2019 proposed changes. The 2019 plans have been adapted to take into account site-specific conditions to ensure ranchers, permittees, and industry can adapt to their local conditions rather than be forced to conform to a one-size-fits-all, national approach.

Key Changes:

  • The 2019 plans allow for greater flexibility and local control of conservation and management actions related to sage grouse, ensuring that we can both conserve the habitat and enable grazers to maintain their livelihood. USDA has revised grazing guidelines to shift from rigid, prescriptive standards to common sense, locally-driven strategies.
  • The 2019 plans align state and federal conservation standards, so ranchers and other land users have one set of standards instead of dealing with multiple, complex layers of restrictions. The new changes also align mitigation options with state-based systems so mitigation strategies on how to ensure no net-loss of habitat are locally supported, not a one-size-fits-all standard.
  • The 2019 plans maintain the goal of preventing any net-loss to critical sage grouse habitat, but no longer require the unreasonable standard that every action increase conservation. This enables local stakeholders to determine what strategies to implement where and how while still conserving sage grouse habitat.

— USDA

For more news from Colorado, click here.

Spread the word

Browse More Clips

Growing healthier soil, food and profits

Hereford Juniors compete in national contests

Primary Sidebar

MORE

COLORADO CLIPS

Colorado grain stock report
July 5, 2022
Angus breeders engage in premiere education at Beef Leaders Institute (BLI)
July 5, 2022
July is Bison Month!
July 4, 2022
harvest
USDA to gather monthly yield data to measure crop production
July 4, 2022
Board of Directors restructuring proposal
July 4, 2022
  • Trending
  • Latest

YOU MIGHT ALSO LIKE...

Footer

MORNING AG CLIPS

  • Sponsors
  • About Us
  • Advertise with Us
  • Privacy Statement
  • Terms of Service
  • Customer & Technical Support

CONNECT WITH US

  • Like Us on Facebook
  • Instagram
  • LinkedIn
  • Twitter
  • YouTube

TRACK YOUR TRADE

  • Markets & Economy
  • Cattle Updates
  • Dairy News
  • Policy & Politics
  • Corn Alerts

QUICK LINKS

  • Account
  • Portal Membership
  • Invite Your Friends
  • Subscribe to RSS
  • WeatherTrends
  • Just Me, Kate

© 2022 Morning Ag Clips, LLC. All Rights Reserved.