BLM to Reevaluate Management Plans for Greater Sage-Grouse Conservation

On November 19, 2021, the Bureau of Land Management (“BLM”) announced that it has initiated a process to consider updating the range-wide management plans for sagebrush habitat adopted in 2015 and amended in 2019.  More than 70 resource management plans guide habitat conservation on 67 million acres of greater sage-grouse habitat in 10 Western states.  This states include California, Colorado, Idaho, Montana, Nevada, North Dakota, Oregon, South Dakota, Utah, and Wyoming.

According to BLM’s press release, it “will examine new scientific information, including the effects of stressors like climate change, to assess what management actions may best support sagebrush habitat conservation and restoration on public lands to benefit sage-grouse, as well as the people who rely on this landscape to support their livelihoods and traditions.”  The results of this process likely will have significant implications (e.g., development limitations and required mitigation) for activities on public lands, including the development of renewable energy infrastructure.

In conjunction with its announcement, BLM will be preparing environmental impact statements to support its land use planning initiative.  To that end, BLM will be publishing a notice initiating the scoping process under the National Environmental Policy Act on November 22, 2021.

Comments on scoping will be due 75 days from when the notice is published.

If you have any questions about BLM’s announcement or its initiation of the scoping process, please contact Jared Wigginton at jared@goodstewardlegal.com.

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