The Bureau of Land Management is announcing a draft plan to strengthen greater sage-grouse conservation and management on public lands, informed by the best-available science and input from local, state, federal, and Tribal partners.
According to the Bureau, the draft plan is built on, “decades of partnership, research, and on-the-ground knowledge and experience in maintaining, protecting and restoring healthy sagebrush habitats.”
Greater sage-grouse rely on sagebrush lands for all aspects of their life cycle to meet seasonal needs for food, cover and reproduction. A local population may need up to 40 square miles of intact landscape to stay healthy.
Populations once in the millions now number fewer than 800,000, largely due to habitat loss exacerbated by climate change, such as drought, increasing wildfires, and invasive species.
Protecting and restoring sagebrush on BLM-managed public lands across the West is critical not just for greater sage-grouse, but also for the health of western communities and other iconic Western species that rely on healthy sagebrush, including mule deer, pronghorn, and the pygmy rabbit.
Additionally, these collaboratively developed landscape level plans will ensure that other multiple uses of BLM sagebrush lands – including clean energy projects – move forward in a manner that limits impacts to sensitive resources and can also help combat climate change – the main driver of greater sage-grouse habitat loss.
“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,” said BLM Director Tracy Stone-Manning.
“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.”
The BLM manages the largest single share of sage grouse habitat in the United States—nearly 67 million acres of 145 million total acres. The draft plan offers a range of
alternatives for sustainable management of these lands.
Balancing a consistent management approach across the range while addressing conditions and policies unique to individual states, BLM will be able to work more effectively with state and local managers to protect and improve sagebrush habitats on public lands.
The BLM will hold thirteen public meetings to answer questions and take further comments on the draft alternatives and analysis. Information on public meetings will be posted in the events column on the main page of the BLM website.
The draft environmental impact statement and plan amendments are now open for public comment. The comment period will end on June 13, 2024. More information on how to comment on this draft will be posted at https://www.blm.gov/sagegrouse. A final environmental impact statement is expected this fall, followed by Records of Decision in each state.
