"U.S. Efforts on Grouse Not Enough To Avoid Esa Listing -- Scientists"

"Leading experts on the greater sage grouse warned the Obama administration today that it must take stronger, more scientifically sound steps to protect the imperiled bird and avoid the need to place it on the endangered species list.

The letter from 11 scientists who have studied the sage grouse urged the Bureau of Land Management and Forest Service to finalize amendments that would add grouse conservation measures to as many as 98 BLM resource management plans (RMPs) and Forest Service land-use plans covering millions of acres of public lands across the sage grouse's 11-state Western range.

But the scientists cautioned that the 14 draft plans unveiled in late 2013, and the one completed RMP amendment finalized last year in Lander, Wyo., don't adopt all the necessary sage grouse conservation measures highlighted by the best available science, particularly as it relates to allowable surface disturbance activity in sage grouse habitat."

Scott Streater reports for Greenwire March 12, 2015.