Forest Service wants to trim habitat for sage grouse
(AP file photo) Male Greater Sage Grouse perform their mating ritual on a lake near Walden, Colo. Conservationists say they'll fight a federal government proposal to allow oil and gas drilling in remote northeast Nevada, including open-range that's home to a dwindling species of ground-dwelling bird.
Cheyenne, Wyo. • The U.S. Forest Service wants to reduce designated habitat in Wyoming and Nevada for a ground-dwelling bird.
The agency said Friday its plan would target 300 square miles now set aside for sage grouse in Wyoming and Nevada, with nearly all of the reduction in Wyoming.
A Wyoming official says the proposed changes simply align Forest Service plans with Wyoming's map of state-designated sage grouse habitat.
More than 8,000 square miles of national forest land has been set aside as protected habitat for the birds in Colorado, Idaho, Nevada, Utah and Wyoming.
The Natural Resources Defense Council says the proposed reduction "unravels" a 2015 Forest Service conservation plan.
The agency said then the birds would not be listed as threatened or endangered because state and federal agencies had come up with plans to conserve its habitat.
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