WASHINGTON – Today, the National Cattlemen’s Beef Association (NCBA) and Public Lands Council (PLC) responded to the Bureau of Land Management’s release of the updated greater sage grouse management plans. These plans will shape public land use across 10 different states and tens of millions of Western acres. After completing revisions to the plans in 2015 and again in 2019, the agency is currently amending 77 separate land use plans across the West, and could potentially designate millions of acres as new Areas of Critical Environmental Concern (ACECs). Despite this incredibly expansive scope, the BLM provided only 90 days to comment on the draft Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) and only 60 days to comment on proposed ACECs.
“This proposal has been years in the making. It will have far-reaching implications for how states conserve sage grouse habitat and how Western ranchers are able to operate going forward,” said NCBA President and Wyoming rancher Mark Eisele. “The BLM must extend the comment period and give local stakeholders more time to engage in this process—and that process must be driven, first and foremost, by sound science.”
“Years of research, including a very recent and comprehensive 10-year study, support the fact that managed livestock grazing is compatible and can actually benefit the bird,” said PLC President and Colorado federal grazing permittee Mark Roeber. “The agency must look at the science, and leverage livestock grazing as a tool for strengthening the sagebrush steppe, preventing wildfire, and conserving this iconic species.”
NCBA and PLC are requesting that the agency significantly extend the comment period deadlines while ranchers and other local stakeholders evaluate these lengthy proposals.
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NCBA
