The Bureau of Land Management’s bid to finalize a new regulatory road map protecting the greater sage grouse before President-elect Donald Trump’s inauguration has failed.
The agency announced Thursday in a Federal Register notice that it will issue records of decision approving updated sage grouse management plans for Colorado and Oregon but not for the eight other states covered by the planning process. That leaves the fate of the plans up to the Trump administration.
The holdup in finalizing plans covering nearly 70 million acres of federal rangelands in all 10 Western states is linked to an inability to resolve objections raised by the governors in those states during the 60-day consistency review, BLM said.
The governors of Colorado and Oregon, the agency said in its notice, “did not submit any administrative protests or identify any inconsistencies with State plans, policies, or programs.”
