BLM finalizes updated Sage-Grouse plans that expand energy access and support western communities

WASHINGTON - The Bureau of Land Management announced updated plans that enhance conservation of Greater sage-grouse habitat while balancing access to public lands for responsible energy and mineral development across Idaho, Montana and the Dakotas, Nevada and California, Utah and Wyoming.

"We are strengthening American energy security while ensuring the sage-grouse continues to thrive," said Acting Bureau of Land Management Director Bill Groffy. "Healthy sagebrush country powers our communities, sustains wildlife and supports the economies that make the West strong."

The decisions support Executive Order 14154, Unleashing American Energy, along with Secretary of the Interior orders that advance national energy independence. The updated approach makes more acres available in some areas for development than the 2015 plans allowed while continuing to protect key habitat across approximately 65 million acres of sagebrush lands that sustain more than 350 wildlife species.

Developed in close partnership with Western governors and state wildlife managers, the approved plans reflect the latest science and address state requests for better alignment on adaptive management and other conservation strategies.

The Bureau of Land Management incorporated feedback received during public protest and governor consistency review periods before finalizing today's decisions. Plans for Colorado and Oregon were completed earlier this year.

The records of decision and approved resource management plan amendments are available on the Bureau of Land Management national planning website. A notice of availability will publish in the Federal Register in the coming weeks.