EVANSTON — Uinta County community members gathered on Friday, July 21, to hear a presentation by the Sage-Grouse Implementation Team (SGIT), an organization comprised of state, federal and industrial representatives. Residents packed the commission chambers at the Uinta County Complex.

Before introducing the SGIT members in attendance, county commissioner Eric South explained the team’s purpose. “As you know, the Bureau of Land Management is in the process of revising the 2019 Greater Sage Grouse plans,” he said, “which were litigated and never went into effect in Wyoming.”

In the past, South said, the BLM has been involved in Wyoming’s mapping process, including the Wyoming sage-grouse core area map in their management plan. “Unfortunately, the current BLM process does not reflect the collaborative approach taken in past years.” 

This has necessitated a revision of the state’s core area map, said South.

Wyoming Wildlife and National Resource Trust Executive Director and SGIT chair Bob Budd said the ongoing sage grouse issue began in 1998.

“There were eight petitions filed in five years to list sage-grouse as an endangered species,” he said. “In Wyoming, we started a management plan back in 1999.”

The Wyoming Game and Fish Department (WGFD) adopted the plan in 2003.

In 2005, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) said sage-grouse was not warranted as an endangered species. “In December of 2007, a court in Idaho that you’re all familiar with remanded it back ... In 2008, the first executive order on sage grouse was done,” Budd said.

In 2010, FWS said sage grouse was “warranted for listing, but precluded by other priorities,” according to Budd. This means the species was effectively in a queue to be listed. In 2015, the proposed listing was shot down, then appealed, remaining “in limbo” through the 2019 revision of 2015 plans.

After the BLM’s 2019 plans were deemed invalid, they began revising once again. The new maps, which BLM’s process shows only to cooperating agencies, are a new point of contention. “The maps are bad,” Budd said. “They’re not based on good science; they’re not based on the same things we use.”

The goal in Wyoming, Budd said, is to avoid the need for a listing while preserving the state’s economy.

In summary, SGIT aims to have adequate regulatory mechanisms, habitat availability and an appropriate number of active leks throughout Wyoming.

If the bird is listed, Budd said regulations would be severe and the entire historic sage-grouse range would be protected by FWS.

WGFD Deputy Director Angi Bruce said avoiding a listing requires a scientific approach, adding that Wyoming has the best sage grouse data in the world.

“On the biological end of it, we focused on three areas,” Bruce said.

These are lekking sites; chapter 33 research permits, which allow WGFD to keep a record of bird movements; and observation data.

This information led to a first draft for a map, which was later revised. The SGIT will meet in August to make further drafts and make a recommendation to Gov. Mark Gordon.

Bruce said the plan will not change landowners’ existing rights, using the example of an oil and gas permit held by a landowner whose land is added to a core area.

“That’s a valid and existing right. It’s not going to change and there are not going to be more restrictions on it,” Bruce said.