BLM adds protections for Gunnison sage-grouse habitat

New amendment limits habitat disturbances, future protections uncertain under Trump administration

By Sophie Stuber, Telluride Daily Planet

The Bureau of Land Management (BLM) recently released its Record of Decision (ROD) and Approved Resource Management Plan (RMP) Amendment for the Gunnison sage-grouse. The amendment, published on Oct. 17, 2024, creates a framework to conserve and improve habitat for the Gunnison sage-grouse on BLM lands for the eight populations in southwest Colorado and southeast Utah. The BLM manages about 42% of the Gunnison sage-grouse’s current habitat, primarily located in southwest Colorado.

The BLM’s new amendment will increase the buffer zone around Gunnison sage-grouse habitat to one-mile, designate three new Areas of Critical Environmental Concern (ACEC) and limit surface disturbances on BLM lands in sage-grouse habitats.

“The BLM worked tirelessly with local governments, conservation organizations, industry, Tribal Nations, and other stakeholders over the past two years to find an appropriate balance, which is achieved with the completion of these plans,” BLM Colorado State Director Doug Vilsack said in a statement. “BLM is at the forefront of wildlife conservation in Colorado by… advancing a separate plan that will limit disturbance in the habitat of the threatened Gunnison sage-grouse.”

A group of environmental organizations advocated for enhancing the protections in the RMP Amendment and ensuring that conservation measures were included in the final proposal.

“Those efforts were relatively successful in the new plan. There are a number of new ACECs included, and the buffer has been extended to a mile, which is great,” Ruthie Boyd, Sheep Mountain Alliance program coordinator, told the Daily Planet.

The Gunnison sage-grouse is a federally listed threatened species under the Endangered Species Act. Its historical habitat spanned southwestern Colorado, northern New Mexico, eastern Utah and northeastern Arizona, but the existing habitat is now limited to the core Gunnison Basin population in west-central Colorado and seven disconnected satellite populations.

The core Gunnison Basin population remains relatively stable, but the satellite populations have significantly declined. The two smallest satellite populations are only 36 birds. Their habitat is further at risk due to energy development and mining, invasive species, livestock grazing land, climate change, and fires.

Protecting sage-grouse habitat can also improve the health of the planet. Initial research shows that deep-rooted sagebrush systems hold more carbon than shallow grasslands.

San Miguel County has worked with regional environmental organizations for years and implemented a county-wide recovery plan for the Gunnison sage-grouse in 2020. The bird was classified as a threatened species in 2014. The county gives $14,500 every year to support the Gunnison sage-grouse, including the San Miguel Basin population. The San Miguel Board of County Commissioners (BOCC) also supported the Revised Management Procedure (RMP) plan amendment.

“It's incumbent on us to do our very best to preserve the remaining bird populations and try to enhance the future population,” San Miguel County commissioner Lance Waring told the Daily Planet in March.

Locally, there will also be some updates to BLM protections. The BLM’s Uncompahgre Field Office is releasing a draft of their Resource Management Plan amendment this month. The amendment comes after a 2020 lawsuit where the BLM reached a settlement agreement to reassess the oil and gas leasing in the initial plan.

Environmental organizations are advocating for better conservation and environmental measures in the new amendment, although there is concern that the RMP amendment’s environmental elements will not survive Donald Trump’s upcoming administration

“Hopefully that (amendment) will have more environmental protections in it, but there's a good chance that could be changed as well under the Trump administration. And it sounds like a lot of these vulnerabilities come from how it can be easy to rewrite some of the policy guidance and manuals that the BLM staff use, and just other executive measures that Trump could take,” Boyd said.

Trump selected North Dakota Governor Doug Burgum to head the Interior Department, which oversees the BLM. Burgum is a strong advocate for fossil fuels and has called for increasing drilling on federal lands as well as loosening environmental protections.

The BLM manages 8.3 million acres of land and more than 27 million acres of subsurface mineral rights — mainly on the Western Slope — that can be leased for mining, drilling and energy development. Trump has repeatedly stated that he wants to increase drilling on public lands during his second term.

“The Trump administration has a history of decreasing the acres of protection, so that's definitely a concern,” Boyd said.

Historically, some court decisions have prevented certain public land leases for oil and gas if they pose risks to threatened or endangered species.

In 2022, a Federal District Court overturned the BLM’s decisions to lease public land in Southwest Colorado for oil and gas development in 2017 and 2018. San Miguel County and several conservation groups — Rocky Mountain Wild, San Juan Citizens Alliance and Conservation Colorado — had sued the BLM Management over the Trump Administration’s leasing of public lands in key Gunnison sage-grouse habitat. The plaintiffs argued that oil and gas drilling could harm the sage-grouse.

Senior U.S. District Court Judge John L. Kane determined that “there were additional foreseeable impacts for the BLM to consider at the leasing stage such that the BLM did not comply with its responsibilities under NEPA.”

In April 2024, the Biden administration approved two public lands measures that prioritize conservation — elevating it to the same level as oil and gas drilling — and increased fees for oil and gas permits.

Although these rules are at risk under the Trump administration, reversing protections for species like the Gunnison sage-grouse could take years because the environmental review process is lengthy.

Read the article here.