Govind Tekale
The Trump administration released draft plans on September 2 that would ease protections for the greater sage grouse across about 50 million acres of public lands in eight Western states. The proposed changes shift more authority to states and open areas to mining, oil drilling, and transmission projects.
The Bureau of Land Management’s (BLM) proposal applies to Idaho, Montana, North Dakota, South Dakota, Nevada, California, Utah, and Wyoming. It revises management plans that were created during the Obama and Biden administrations to protect the iconic bird from extinction.
“The Trump administration is obliterating the only thing standing between the greater sage grouse and extinction,” said Randi Spivak, public lands policy director at the Center for Biological Diversity.
The greater sage grouse population has declined dramatically over the decades. According to U.S. Geological Survey data cited by conservation groups, the bird’s population has fallen nearly 80% between 1968 and 2023.
The proposal revises adaptive management to align with state policies and programs, rather than relying on uniform federal triggers; it also removes certain designations and adjusts rights‑of‑way allocations.
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Specific changes include minimizing habitat designations outside state-identified areas in Utah and easing development restrictions for “major rights-of-way” in Nevada’s general habitat areas, potentially benefiting projects like the Greenlink North transmission line.
State officials and industry representatives support the changes, saying they better reflect where birds actually are. Wyoming’s Bob Budd described the update as refining core-area maps based on years of on-the-ground data.
The changes come as House Republicans included a provision in their 2026 spending bill to block Interior from using funds to implement Biden-era sage grouse management plans that weren’t finalized before Trump took office.
Conservation groups stress that protecting sage grouse habitat benefits hundreds of other species in the Sagebrush Sea ecosystem, including pygmy rabbits, pronghorns, mule deer, golden eagles, and native trout.
The public has until early October to comment on the proposed changes. The draft plan is part of a years-long battle over how to manage the bird’s habitat while balancing development interests and conservation needs.
