Critics push back against federal protection for bird in rural West

[WestVirginiaRebel]

Fox News:

Ranchers, miners, energy developers and public officials are voicing concerns over the federal government's push to protect a bird roughly the size of a chicken, fearing possible restrictions on public lands that could have deep economic consequences in the rural West.

 

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is under a judge's order to make a final determination on listing the Greater sage grouse as a threatened or endangered species. The species is found in 11 Western states, including Nevada, Utah, Idaho and Oregon.

 

According to the Bureau of Land Management, the sage grouse have declined in number over the past century because of the loss of critical sagebrush habitat. The Fish and Wildlife Service has proposed to list as threatened populations of the sage grouse in Nevada and California.

 

Ranchers and the oil and gas industry dodged regulations in 2005 when the government decided against extending new protections. The possible listing has been compared to the northern spotted owl, whose listing as a threatened species in 1990 drew criticism from the logging industry in the Northwest, according to The Associated Press.

 

Grant Gerber, a commissioner in Elko County, Nevada, and longtime critic of U.S. land managers says he's convinced the feds have already made up their mind to list the sage grouse as a threatened or endangered species.

 

But a Bureau of Land Management official says that's not the case and insisted at a public meeting in Elko last week they want the community's input on how best to save the troubled bird without a federal listing.

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Government birdbrains.