The Bureau of Land Management moved Thursday to overhaul the Obama-era management of the greater sage-grouse, shelving a planned ban on mining claims and opening the door to more state and local control of the species.
The agency said it plans to publish a notice of intent in the Federal Register on the 2015 greater sage-grouse land-management plans, citing the need to comply with a federal court’s ruling in March against the designation of sagebrush focal areas in Nevada.
In a separate notice, the BLM also said it would withdraw an eleventh-hour Obama administration application to set aside 10 million acres of federal land in six Western states from mineral development in the name of sage-grouse protection.
The actions came with Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke making no secret of his determination to revise the Obama-era policies on the sage grouse, whose vast habitat and fussy breeding habits have for years fueled a tug-of-war over species conservation and economic development in the rural West.
The notices ruffled feathers within the environmental movement but drew cheers from Western Republicans and industry groups that have decried the sage-grouse restrictions as unnecessary and politically driven.
But House Natural Resources Committee Chairman Rob Bishop applauded the decision to reverse the mining ban.
The Bureau of Land Management moved Thursday to overhaul the Obama-era management of the greater sage-grouse, shelving a planned ban on mining claims and opening the door to more state and local control of the species.
The agency said it plans to publish a notice of intent in the Federal Register on the 2015 greater sage-grouse land-management plans, citing the need to comply with a federal court’s ruling in March against the designation of sagebrush focal areas in Nevada.
In a separate notice, the BLM also said it would withdraw an eleventh-hour Obama administration application to set aside 10 million acres of federal land in six Western states from mineral development in the name of sage-grouse protection.
The actions came with Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke making no secret of his determination to revise the Obama-era policies on the sage grouse, whose vast habitat and fussy breeding habits have for years fueled a tug-of-war over species conservation and economic development in the rural West.
The notices ruffled feathers within the environmental movement but drew cheers from Western Republicans and industry groups that have decried the sage-grouse restrictions as unnecessary and politically driven.
But House Natural Resources Committee Chairman Rob Bishop applauded the decision to reverse the mining ban.
Read more at Washington Times
As many of us know by now the Dumb-O-Crats are in the pockets of the Eco-Nazis and do their bidding Trump is’nt going to dance every time some Eco-Freak claps his hands