"Interior Department to Overhaul Obama’s Sage Grouse Protection Plan"

"WASHINGTON — The Trump administration will seek to reconsider an Obama-era blueprint for protecting the greater sage grouse, a move that could lead to new mineral leasing, grazing and other commercial activities across the quirky bird’s Western habitat.

The Interior Department intends this week to publish a formal notice of intent to amend 98 sage grouse habitat management plans across 10 states, according to multiple agency and state officials who have been briefed on the effort. Those plans, completed in 2015, were adopted after a decade of negotiations among conservationists, sportsmen and extraction industries as well as federal, state, local and tribal authorities.

The elaborate compromise was designed to keep the sage grouse off the endangered species list, which would have required much greater restrictions on activities within the bird’s broad range."

Lisa Friedman reports for the New York Times September 28, 2017.