The Bureau of Land Management is considering amendments to land-use plans for greater sage grouse habitat across 10 western states. Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke has made it clear he intends to gut these already weak plans to make it even easier for corporations to frack, drill, and mine in the birds' habitat on public lands.
Greater sage grouse are completely dependent on intact sagebrush steppe for survival. Over the past 200 years, agriculture, oil and gas drilling, livestock grazing and development have reduced their range by nearly half, and their populations have steadily declined. Zinke's "drill first, ask later" agenda threatens to hasten the loss of sagebrush habitat and accelerate the bird's trajectory towards extinction.
Add your name today to tell the BLM that greater sage grouse urgently need increased protections consistent with science, including an end to all new oil and gas drilling in their habitat.
Greater Sage Grouse Need More Protection, Not Less
I'm writing to express my strong opposition to any changes to the BLM's greater sage grouse land management plans that would weaken protections for this imperiled bird or open its habitat to new drilling, mining or grazing.
[Your comment will be added here]
Over the past 200 years, agriculture, oil and gas drilling, livestock grazing and development have reduced sage grouse range by nearly half and sage grouse populations have steadily declined. Sage grouse deserve to exist in their own right, but healthy sage grouse populations also benefit pronghorn, elk, golden eagle, native trout and nearly 200 other bird species.
The existing federal conservation plans for sage grouse already fall short of scientists' recommended conservation measures. Riddled with loopholes, exemptions, modifications and waivers for compliance, these weak plans are now under further attack from Secretary of the Interior Ryan Zinke, an outspoken critic of the years-long sage-grouse conservation effort through 10 western states. Zinke's proposed modifications to sage-grouse plans -- like eliminating "sagebrush focal area" protections for some of the most important habitat -- will only accelerate the birds' loss of habitat and trajectory towards extinction.
Sagebrush habitat, once damaged and fragmented by drilling, roads or invasive plants, is difficult to impossible to restore. It's inconsistent with the conservation duties of the Department of the Interior to sacrifice our remaining sagebrush steppe and the birds that rely upon it for more drilling and mining. I urge you not to sell out this proud sagebrush survivor just to enrich the oil and gas industry.
Sincerely,
[Your name]
