Administration overhauls sage-grouse conservation strategy

[Fern Davies]

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http://thehill.com/policy/energy-environment/345615-trump-administration-overhauls-sage-grouse-conservation-strategy

 

Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke publicly released a 53-page report Monday from an internal review committee and ordered his department to implement numerous recommendations from the report.

The strategy answers longstanding complaints from the oil and natural gas industries, ranchers and others, as well as some Republican state officials in the West, who said the Obama administration’s conservation strategy was too restrictive and costly. 

 

In a letter to Deputy Interior Secretary David Bernhardt Monday, Zinke ordered the implementation of nine broad recommendations, including re-evaluating habitat protections, allowing states to set population objectives, providing more flexibility in management decisions, clarifying standards for waivers to habitat protections and changing the policy on oil leasing in affected areas.

 

Here's the actual plan.