Serving the Big Horn Basin for over 100 years
Serving the Big Horn Basin for over 100 years
Public meeting next week
As Greater Sage-Grouse (GRSG) habitats become threatened across the Western United States, the Bureau of Land Management, along with partnering agencies, are working toward the conservation of the species and sagebrush habitat.
As the BLM goes through the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) process, which requires public participation, a public meeting will be from 5 to 7 p.m. next Tuesday, April 23 at the Washakie County Library in Worland.
“The BLM encourages residents to attend the meeting, gather information, ask questions, review the plan and provide public comment,” said Deputy State Director of Communications Brad Purdy out of the BLM Wyoming State Office.
As stated in their Environmental Impact Statement, the BLM is making changes to their management plans that will result in “locally relevant decisions that achieve range-wide GRSG conservation goals consistent with the agency’s multiple use and sustained yield mission and GRSG management efforts with federal, state, local, and tribal partners.”
BACKGROUND
According to the BLM Executive Summary of the plan, state and federal agencies have worked toward the conservation of sage grouse species for over three decades. However, “Despite years of management attention from multiple state and federal agencies GRSG habitat continues to be impacted and lost.”
In 2015, the BLM and United States Forest Service made changes to resource management plans across 10 western states in an effort to keep sage grouse from being listed as threatened or endangered. From 2017 through 2019, the BLM went through another planning process, making changes to their initial 2015 plans.
Now as the BLM considers more changes, “Alternatives in the proposal build on the most successful components of the plans that the BLM adopted in 2015 and updated in 2019,” according to a BLM press release on March 14. The draft plan takes updated conservation science into consideration, as well as lessons learned from previous plans, and implements flexibility.
WHY SAGE GROUSE?
“The BLM agrees with Governor Gordon when he states in his 2019 Executive Order that the Greater Sage-Grouse is an iconic western species that inhabits much of the sagebrush-steppe habitat in Wyoming and serves as an umbrella species for other wildlife within that habitat,” said Purdy.
The BLM press release explains that sage grouse habitat loss across the Western U.S. is due to, “climate change, such as drought, increasing wildfires and invasive species.” Sage grouse populations have historically been in the millions, and are now fewer than 800,000, said the press release.
“Protecting and restoring sagebrush on BLM-managed public lands across the West is critical not just for Greater Sage-Grouse, but also for the health of western communities and other iconic Western species that rely on healthy sagebrush, including mule deer, pronghorn, and the pygmy rabbit,” said the press release.
In an announcement from the BLM Wyoming State Office released on April 5, 2024, they said, “The Bureau of Land Management manages the largest single share of sage-grouse habitat in the United States—nearly 67 million acres of 145 million total acres,” resulting in these amendments to their management plans.
ALTERNATIVE 5
The BLM is considering six alternatives, all with varying degrees of conservation and restrictions. Currently, Alternative 5 is the preferred alternative. Purdy emphasized that all six alternatives must be considered until the BLM makes a final decision.
Under Alternative 5, “Lands would be managed for avoiding and minimizing direct and indirect disturbances on sagebrush vegetation and sagebrush communities that would require compensatory mitigation to achieve no net habitat loss,” according to Chapter 4 of the Environmental Impact Statement.
“Alternative 5 considered options with fewer restrictions on resources and provide more opportunities for considering compensatory mitigation to offset impacts on GRSG and its habitat,” according to the Executive Summary.
Alternative 5 also has more flexibility than other alternatives, as it grants exceptions to, “fluid mineral stipulations and the disturbance cap.”
Alternative 3 places the most restrictions on lands and prioritizes conservation, Alternative 2 is the no-action alternative and the other four alternatives land in between.
As for anticipated impacts to specific to Wyoming and Big Horn Basin communities, Purdy said, “It’s a bit too early to try to predict specifics or jump to any conclusions about what the residents of Worland or the Big Horn Basin should or shouldn’t be concerned about […] the BLM would welcome comments concerning restrictions and how the agency’s plan could help support local and state efforts already underway.”
PUBLIC COMMENT
The draft plan is available for review until June 13, 2024. The plan can be reviewed at online at eplanning.blm.gov/eplanning-ui/project/2016719/510. Public comments can be made at the same website.