Subject: [Tweeters] Gunnison sage grouse: 400,
Date: Aug 12 15:15:27 2014
From: notcalm at comcast.net - notcalm at comcast.net




Tweeters,

Some good news from June.

"The federal government this week declared more than 400,000 acres in southwestern Colorado and eastern Utah off-limits to energy exploration or any other kind of development to protect the Gunnison sage grouse, a precursor to a much larger fight over another species of the bird that ranges across 11 Western states.

The Bureau of Land Management directive released Monday formalizes protections the government had already implemented to preserve the Gunnison grouse. A decision on whether to list it as an endangered species is due in November."



BLM spokesman Steven Hall said that the protected land falls in 800,000 acres that have been identified as the bird's general range.

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The Gunnison sage grouse only lives in a small sliver of Colorado and Utah and the estimated 4,500 animals remaining are about one-tenth of its original population. Because it is so depleted, Hall said, its habitat has to be aggressively protected."
Full story:
http://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/400-000-acres-declared-limits-protect-bird-n134086

Dan Reiff
Mercer Island