Sage Grouse Plans

For being such a small bird the sage grouse has sure been causing some big problems without even knowing it. Farmers and ranchers all across the west have been having to deal with issues surrounding it’s listing. Dustin Van Liew, Executive Director of PLC and NCBA Federal Lands, talks about the BLM’s sage grouse management plans.

VAN LIEW: Just recently the BLM and Forest Service released those final environmental impact statements which will dictate how the federal lands are managed across the sage grouse states, eleven states in the west. Time and again, industry has filed comments and pushed back against the administration and agencies on their idea to really manage those federal lands for one single use and that is for sage grouse. Unfortunately they did not listen to our concerns and there fore we filed protests against their final EIS’s just last week that we hope will lead to them making those changes so that they will be back within the multiple use management and within the law.

He says this really is part of a bigger issue especially for cattle producers.

VAN LIEW: This is just the latest example and probably the biggest with the problems with the Endangered Species Act and that’s why we continue to work with Congress to bring reforms or modernization to an act that has not been reauthorized by Congress for over a quarter of a century and those impacts and issues are beginning to effect states outside the west

And that’s Washington Ag Today. I’m Greg Martin, thanks for listening on the Ag Information Network of the West.