Mining: Owyhee Desert Sagebrush

The Trump administration looks to unravel land management plans that protect more than 350 wildlife species who call Nevada’s Owyhee Desert Sagebrush home. The greater sage-grouse conservation plans are our best hope for saving wildlife species and protecting the endangered sagebrush habitat–without these plans this wild landscape may fall victim to fossil fuel development. Please click below to tweet at Interior Secretary Zinke and tell him to keep these critical land management plans in place!

The sagebrush sea stretching across our western public lands is an endangered ecosystem, vanishing more each year due to sprawling energy development, population growth and many other land uses steadily eroding a once-ubiquitous sagebrush ecosystem.

The destruction of western sagebrush impacts more than 350 species that rely on the ecosystem—from pygmy rabbits to pronghorn. One of the more imminently threatened species is the greater sage-grouse, a bird perhaps best known for its mating ritual dance.

The greater sage-grouse conservation plans—our best hope for keeping greater sage-grouse off the Endangered Species list and recovering the species—are under siege. The Trump administration has vowed to review the plans with an eye toward boosting energy development by reducing necessary protections for sagebrush habitat. And in a lawsuit against the Nevada sage-grouse conservation plan led by the mining industry, the Nevada District Court ruled that the BLM must complete additional analysis to support the identification of Sagebrush Focal Areas, including the Owyhee desert sagebrush,  leaving protective measures in limbo.

The greater sage-grouse conservation plans—our best hope for recovering the species and avoiding the Endangered Species list—are under siege.