Judge: Enviros must file new suit on grouse decision

A federal judge has rebuffed a first attempt by an Idaho-based environmental group to challenge a March 5 decision on federal protection for the greater sage grouse. But to Western Watersheds Project, which has its main office in Hailey, Tuesday’s decision by U.S. District Judge B. Lynn Winmill won’t really end up a setback. The organization still plans to urge the judge to tell the federal government to list the grouse under the Endangered Species Act, said its longtime attorney, Laird Lucas of Advocates for the West. It just will do so in a separate case. So, the debate over the bird’s future — imperiled by numerous threats to its sagebrush habitat across the West — will continue to play out in the courts...more