Governor discusses sage grouse

Sage grouse and their habitat are in the limelight once again as newly elected Governor Mark Gordon agreed with conservationists last week who say it is Wyoming’s authority to require developers to make up for impacts to greater sage grouse habitat.

President Trump’s administration has moved to abandon this requirement of late with the tossing of the requirements through the Bureau of Land Management.

The issue stems from oil and gas leases on federal property.

Those companies must receive state approval before drilling and a good portion of sage grouse habitat is found in areas where they are most likely to drill.

An executive conservation order regarding the sage grouse and oil and gas drilling was put in place by former governors and the White House’s move to remove the requirements threatens long-term efforts by Wyoming to keep the bird safe and prosperous.

In fact, conservationists say the abandonment of the requirements would get the drilling leases into the hands of the companies faster and destroy the conservation efforts they have worked so hard to create.

Brian Rutledge of the National Audubon Society says, “The objective is to get all these holdings into private hands before anyone can fix it.”

Wyoming has nearly 40 percent of the greater sage grouse habitat in the world.

“It is important that we have some mitigation,” Governor Gordon said. “I do believe that you have industry that is trying to figure out a way to move forward and part of that is by having some mitigation available.”

The main spots where this is a problem are in the Cheyenne drilling areas where a lot of the habitat has been consumed. All of the remaining top-quality habitat is here in the Big Horn Basin.

The partial government shutdown halted things for a month so the Bureau of Land Management extended their comment period for the proposed March 19-20 lease sales of 148,908 acres of public lands in Wyoming through Jan. 23.

Included in those acres are the Red Desert to Hoback mule deer migration corridor and habitat designated for the protection of the sage grouse.