Judge's Sage Grouse Ruling Could Stall BLM Plans in Wyo., Idaho

A federal judge in Idaho this week ruled the Interior Department failed to analyze the cumulative impacts of oil and gas development on sage grouse in southwest Wyoming and failed to include enough data or alternatives for grazing in an Idaho national monument. The ruling was deemed a major early victory for environmentalists -- and the grouse -- in a case challenging 18 land management plans covering 34 million acres in six Western states. "What this court said is in light of the collapse of sage grouse population and habitat, the agency needs to slow down and take a comprehensive look at the impacts of its decisions," said Todd Tucci, an attorney for Advocates for the West who is arguing the case. The Idaho-based Western Watersheds Project brought the case in the final months of the George W. Bush administration, arguing that the Bureau of Land Management had rushed the completion of more than a dozen resource management plans (RMP) without considering impacts to sage grouse. Tucci called this week's ruling on two of the plans -- Wyoming's Pinedale and Idaho's Craters of the Moon -- a "groundbreaking victory" in one of the largest environmental law cases ever filed. "This is not simply a procedural victory" but rather involved substantive violations of the National Environmental Policy Act and Federal Land Policy and Management Act, he said...more

You can see the decision here.