With a Bureau of Land Management (BLM) director yet to be named or confirmed, the agency is proposing a significant change to greater sage grouse conservation policies, most likely setting into motion legal challenges or new petitions for federal protections for the iconic bird under the Endangered Species Act.

The BLM released draft plans Tuesday, stripping away protections for the greater sage grouse on millions of acres of public lands across the West. They announced changes to the adaptive management language in the Proposed Resource Management Plan Amendments to “better align with state policies and programs to manage sage-grouse populations,” according to the announcement.

BLM has removed the designation for priority habitat management areas (PHMA) with limited exceptions to improve consistency with state and local plans, the draft plan states. Wyoming has more greater sage grouse and the species’ habitat than any other Western state.

The species remains a focus for conservation, being listed as a “sensitive species” by both the BLM and the U.S. Forest Service (USFS), and is on the Partners in Flight Yellow Watch List due to significant population declines

“Sage grouse populations have continued to decline, largely due to habitat loss exacerbated by climate impacts such as drought, increasingly intense wildfires, and invasive species,” BLM states on its species chapter.

Gov. Mark Gordon said he is pleased with the changes announced by the BLM. The document outlines changes to both adaptive management and the elimination of priority habitat management areas with limited exceptions. The decision corresponds to concerns raised by the governor and are reflective of the “authority the State of Wyoming has over management sage-grouse,” he said in an email to the Tribune. 

“Finally, the current version of the greater sage grouse plan recognizes Wyoming’s leadership in both protecting the bird and providing for common sense development. Wyoming is home to more sage grouse than any other state, we have decades of experience and a proven track record of successfully managing the bird. Our state plan through the Sage-Grouse Executive Order is sound, and has been for over 16 years,” Gordon said. “In addition, the amendment reverses the Biden policies that attempted to encroach on states’ rights to manage wildlife within their borders. We are grateful to the Trump Administration for recognizing the meaningful work of the states.”

Wyoming Game and Fish Department Director, Angi Bruce, also praised the plan, saying it is rewarding to see  the plan land in a place that uses the best science available, state expertise and our existing state processes. “This collaboration is a representation of our commitment to maintaining a healthy sage grouse population,” she said.

Issues with the plan

Not everyone is excited about the changes. Former Game and Fish Sage Grouse Program Manager (33 years with the department) Tom Christiansen, said the sagebrush steppe, habitat of the sage grouse, is losing ground every year.

“Science has demonstrated that we are losing an average of 1.3 million acres of sagebrush each year across the West to wildfire, invasive plants, and development. Yet we continue to deny and unleash the forces that cause these losses, even double-down on them,” he said Wednesday. “At the same time, valid scientific findings are routinely ignored or misrepresented and widely supported measures like cheatgrass control projects risk losing federal funding.”

When Christiansen retired he said the work he’s most proud of is the work that led up to the US Fish and Wildlife Service’s 2015 decision that the sage grouse did not need to be listed as a threatened and endangered species. But now he considers the current plans an increased threat to the iconic Western species. The historic agreement, which took years to negotiate, was weakened soon after the inauguration of Trump to his first term in 2016.

Because of population declines, the greater sage grouse was considered for listing under the Endangered Species Act in the early 2010s after population decreases were documented. Rather than protect the bird under the act, revised land management plans in 2015 implemented needed protections from extractive uses throughout the range of the greater sage grouse across 10 states.

The number of sage grouse has plummeted by 80% since 1965 across the charismatic bird’s 11-state Western range, according to a report published by the U.S. Geological Survey, the science agency for the Department of the Interior. Half of that decline has happened just since 2002. Western habitats are critical for more than 350 other wildlife species — including pronghorn, mule deer and the pygmy rabbit. They are also the headwaters for the West’s major river systems.

The Biden administration also announced new conservation plans in 2024, but like the 2015 legislation, the changes were not in Trump’s plan to increase the extraction of America’s oil, coal and gas reserves.

“Whether or not the sagebrush biome can continue to function as an ecosystem is at greater risk now than ever before,” Christiansen said.

The draft plan, which only allows for a 30-day public comment period beginning on Wednesday, presents numerous substantial revisions to current conservation plans, including giving states authority to decide when and where protections apply, according to Randi Spivak, public lands policy director at the Center for Biological Diversity. The center stated in a press release that Trump’s proposed plan amendments would hand the states discretion to amend or waive some of the protections, making the process rife with conflicts of interest due to the influence of extractive industries. The new plans would also allow for new rights of way within important habitat areas, he said.

“The Trump administration is obliterating the only thing standing between the greater sage grouse and extinction,” Spivak said. “Trump’s cronies in the mining and fossil fuel industries have been licking their chops over stripping away these protections ever since the election. He’s giving these rich donors what they want and moving to kill off one of the American West’s most iconic birds.”

BLM director

President Trump’s first nominee (of his second term) to lead the Bureau of Land Management was petroleum industry lobbyist Kathleen Sgamma. However, she withdrew from consideration after it was reported that she had posted an opinion critical of Trump about the Jan. 6 riots.

Nominees must be confirmed by the U.S. Senate. However, during the first Trump term, William Pendley Perry served as the acting director of the Bureau of Land Management from 2019 to 2021 without being confirmed because the 50-50 split Senate chose not to vote on the nominee. When U.S. District Judge Brian Morris of Montana ruled that Pendley had “served unlawfully” as the acting head of the BLM for 424 days, enjoined him from acting as the director and suggesting any actions that Pendley took as director must be reversed.

However, Pendley said in an interview with the Tribune at the time that Morris’ decision “has no impact, no impact whatsoever.”

“I have the support of the president. I have the support of the Secretary of the Interior and my job is to get out and get things done to accomplish what the president wants to do,” he said at the time.

Less than a week later he resigned under pressure for his stance on ignoring court orders. No other nominee for the position has been confirmed or widely reported since Sgamma failed to clear the vetting process in April. Principal Deputy Director Bill Groffy is currently leading BLM as acting director, essentially in the similar way Pendley led until the courts intervened.

Groffy was the senior director of legislative and regulatory affairs for the Denver-based Colorado Oil and Gas Association prior to his appointment. The principal deputy director is a political appointee and the second-highest-ranked position at BLM next to the director. The position does not require Senate confirmation.

For more information: The document identifying significant changes, the proposed RMPA/Final EIS and all associated documents are available on the BLM ePlanning project website at: eplanning.blm.gov/eplanning-ui/project/2016719/510