As the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) works to revise it’s Resources Management Plan Amendments (RMPA) for greater sage grouse, Wyoming’s sagebrush steppe expert has a message for grouse in the Cowboy State: “I wish I could just gather all the Wyoming sage grouse up and say, I just want you to know y’all have it real good.”

Of the 11 U.S. states and two Canadian provinces which have wild populations of sage grouse, several are struggling from recent wildfires, invasive species and fragmented habitat; to name a few of the big issues.

Wyoming Game and Fish Department sage grouse and sagebrush step biologist Nyssa Whitford, who has 20 years of experience at the department, including working with local sage grouse groups and the state’s Sage-Grouse Implementation Team, said she’s proud of the sagebrush steppe conservation the state has developed and the folks who implement Wyoming Gov. Mark Gordon’s 2019 executive order.

Gordon’s order updated and replaced previous secretarial orders, incorporating recommendations from the Sage-Grouse Implementation Team (SGIT). The executive order is the state’s primary mechanism to prevent the bird from being listed as an endangered species under the federal Endangered Species Act.

Whitford said Wyoming’s commitment to the species and the available habitat is a recipe for success, but it’s the Game and Fish employees that make it work.

“I’m surrounded by folks that are so dedicated to their work. You know, from the biologist, to the habitat biologist, it is so inspirational,” she said in a Wednesday interview with the Tribune. “What drives me to come in every day is getting to work with this amazing team of people that is so passionate.”

While an extremely contentious debate is exploding all around over the revision of the RMPA, Whitford said the vitriol is largely over updates to the many iterations of the law.

“Earlier versions didn’t quite land language-wise, where it was palatable to Wyoming,” she said. “You put a draft out and it is rarely done right the first time.”

Even if the rules are changed, the federal rule won’t change Whitford’s day-to-day schedule until or if Gordon decides to update his 2019 executive order to reflect changes if adopted.

“My day to day is going to be more influenced by Gov. Gordon’s executive order. If he chooses to release a new one that would update the 2019 [order] that he issued; that’s where I’ll be taking my guidance from.”

Despite what happens in Wyoming, which has more sage grouse and sagebrush habitat than any other state in the union, the debate rages between the new administration and conservation and environmental organizations, many of whom are still reeling after spending years developing the historic 2015 plan to keep the bird from being listed for protections under the Endangered Species Act only to have the agreement immediately changed in the opening months of the first Trump administration.

Comments for proposed Trump administration changes in greater sage grouse habitat conservation, due last week for an amendment to the BLM resource management plan, reveals the contentiousness of the debate.

In 2015, during the Obama administration, the BLM adopted more than 70 management plans to safeguard sagebrush landscapes. Then BLM officials worked with Trump administration partners to revise these plans in 2019 to “build flexibility in coordinating various states wildlife management laws and policies,” the agency said on its species chapter. The changes were met with loud protests by non-governmental organizations fighting for the conservation of the species and applause from Wyoming state officials.

“The numbers of sage-grouse have continued to decline, and recent science shows that we need to update our plans,” the agency reports.

In Wyoming, the state with the most sage grouse habitat and the largest population of the iconic western species, Gov. Mark Gordon detailed his support for the changes that “recognize the state’s authority over wildlife and their management as well as for rescinding the Priority Habitat Management Areas with limited exceptions designation,” according to a press release.

“Wyoming has consistently advocated for a finalized greater sage-grouse [Resource Management Plan Amendment] that recognizes the State’s management authority over the species,” Gordon said in the announcement. “Wyoming is committed to monitoring and evaluating the population, evident by having the most data in the world on sage-grouse and using the best biological science in our analysis. We fully support the changes proposed by the BLM related to adaptive management, choosing to align with the State of Wyoming’s Executive Order Greater Sage-Grouse Core Area Protection.”  

Gordon said he supports the administration’s recognition that the Priority Habitat Management Areas with limited exceptions was “nothing more than an attempt to create an onerous, unnecessary designation.”

He was emphatic these designations are unneeded in Wyoming due to our state’s effective core area strategy. Whitford agreed, saying while several of the states are struggling to keep a healthy population of sage grouse on the landscape, Wyoming’s trend line is relatively flat (with a very slight decrease) since the turn of the century while the overall population nationally drops about 2.3% per year.

Population totals in North America vary greatly between 200,000 to 500,000 individuals. However, producing a credible count of the birds is notoriously difficult, according to the National Audubon Society.

“Their populations tend to go through boom-and-bust cycles every decade or so, which can mask longer-term trends. And because the birds are well camouflaged and adept at hiding in sagebrush, the only viable way to count them is by tallying males at mating sites called leks,” the organization reported.

In Wyoming, wing counts during hunting seasons also are used to create a good estimate of birds on the ground in the state.

Public comments from the top

U.S. Sens. Cynthia Lummis and John Barrasso (both R-Wyo.) applauded the Bureau’s earlier decision to seek public comment on changes to greater sage grouse habitat management. 

“After four years of the Biden administration’s radical environmental policies, the Trump administration is bringing common sense back to Greater Sage Grouse management, inviting western states and stakeholders to be partners in determining the best way to manage the species’ habitat instead of allowing D.C. bureaucrats to continue lording over the West,” said Sen. Lummis. “President Trump understands western states, not D.C. overlords, are best suited to manage their own lands and resources. It’s a welcome change from the Biden administration. I look forward to working with the Trump administration to empower western states to reach their full potential by rolling back Biden’s burdensome and outdated policies.”

Sen. Barrasso pointed out Wyoming’s leadership role in the species’ conservation and his trust in U.S. Dept. of Interior Secretary Doug Burgum.

“Wyoming has been the leader on sage grouse conservation efforts for years,” Barrasso said. “I appreciate Secretary Burgum working with Gov. Gordon and other Wyoming local leaders in this process. I will continue to work with the Trump administration and the state to reach a solution that is best for the people of Wyoming and the sage grouse.”

Nonprofits respond

Conservation groups submitting comments on the proposed changes lamented the potential rollbacks from protections the 2024 plans would have afforded the imperiled bird. New management schemes would significantly weaken existing plans, according to a group of the grouse’s most ardent supporters including Advocates for the West, Western Watersheds Project, American Bird Conservancy, WildEarth Guardians, the Center for Biological Diversity and the Defenders of Wildlife.

“The greater sage grouse is a classic indicator species for the health of the Sagebrush Sea, one of North America’s most imperiled ecosystems,” the organizations said in a press release.

According to U.S. Geological Survey studies, sage grouse populations have declined an estimated 80% range-wide since 1965 and nearly 40% in more recent decades.

“Energy development, overgrazing, sagebrush removal, and the introduction of invasive plants, such as cheatgrass, have severely degraded the Sagebrush Sea, underscoring the urgent need for stronger protections to halt the species’ downward spiral,” they said.

The proposals threaten the species and ensure further declines, said Sarah Stellberg, staff attorney at Advocates for the West.

“Sage grouse are an iconic western species in need of increased protections from disturbances like energy development, particularly as public lands suffer from growing climate impacts,” Stellberg said. “But BLM’s proposed plans only guarantee the bird’s continued decline. By allowing widespread development of sage grouse habitat, these plans threaten not only sage grouse but the health of public lands and hundreds of other species dependent on them.”

Over 350 species of animals, insects and plants rely on the sagebrush ecosystem, including the iconic greater sage grouse, pronghorn, black-footed ferrets, mule deer and pygmy rabbits.

The organizations report the proposed changes include removing the consistent, range-wide adaptive management framework designed to detect local declines in grouse populations before they are irreversible in favor of a patchwork of weaker state protocol. The heightened protections for a subset of Priority Habitat Management Areas would also be eliminated, paving the way for major development projects in these vital habitats.

The new plans would also eliminate the grass height standard for livestock grazing management, threatening to expose nesting sage grouse by removing the necessary cover that prevents predation on eggs and chicks. In Nevada and California, the new plans would allow additional disturbance from development of transmission lines and tall structures, and in Utah, habitat boundaries would be manipulated to drop large expanses of habitat, without a biological basis. 

“These land-use plan amendments were supposed to afford sufficient protections for sage grouse such that Endangered Species Act protections were not warranted,” said Erik Molvar, executive director of Western Watersheds Project. “Instead, since 2015, we’ve seen spotty implementation, political compromise, and ineffective half-measures that have failed to slow the bird’s race towards extinction. The new proposed changes will make it that much harder to save the species.” 

The species has enough trouble without weakening the rules, said Joanna Zhang, endangered species advocate at WildEarth Guardians.

“The fate of greater sage grouse is inseparable from the fate of sagebrush ecosystems,” Zhang said. “These plans must effectively address today’s realities — worsening wildfires, invasive species, and escalating oil and gas development to name a few. By proposing such weak management measures, the Trump administration is putting hundreds of species of plants and wildlife at risk.”

The proposals would hasten the bird’s exit from the West, said Scott Lake, Nevada staff attorney at the Center for Biological Diversity.

“Instead of protecting already imperiled greater sage-grouse populations, the Trump administration plans would put the birds on a fast track to extinction,” he said.  “This is yet another example of Trump putting industry interests over science to gut wildlife protections and bulldoze public lands. These iconic birds and hundreds of other species depend on western sagebrush landscapes and we’ve got to prevent this habitat from being ripped apart for more extraction.”