Issues Federal government pledges to restore 500K acres of lesser prairie chicken habitat. The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) vowed last week to restore an additional 500,000 acres of lesser prairie chicken habitat across five states via a voluntary landowner [...]
Issues U.S. decides against setting aside protected habitat for northern long-eared bat. Federal wildlife officials announced Monday that they would not set aside protected habitat for the caves inhabited by northern long-eared bats, explaining that doing so may draw the [...]
Issues Public comment open again for the burying beetle. This week, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service posted in the Federal Register an invitation for public comment on incidental take permit applications for the American burying beetle “resulting from activities [...]
Issues Nevada Attorney General, counties allege sage grouse protections were politically driven. Nevada Attorney General Adam Laxalt has joined with nine Nevada counties, ranchers, and miners in their third lawsuit against the Obama Administration over the federal government's sage grouse [...]
Issues Lesser Prairie Chicken Population Increases Again. The Western Association of Fish and Wildlife Agencies (WAFWA), the group tasked with overseeing the Lesser Prairie-Chicken Range-wide Conservation Plan, released its second annual report this week. The report indicated the prairie chicken's [...]
Issues BLM has yet to craft sage grouse policies for oil and gas lease sales. As highlighted in news reports this week, five months after Interior Secretary Sally Jewell announced the federal government had found a way to balance drilling [...]
Issues FWS will consider removing American burying beetle from endangered species list. The Obama administration has announced that it will review the status of the American burying beetle to determine if should be removed from the endangered species list. The [...]
Issues Western governors push for larger state role in protecting endangered species. The Western Governors’ Association at a conference on Wednesday discussed the need for changes to be made to the Endangered Species Act (ESA) that would shift power from [...]