Judge B. Lynn Winmill drives sage grouse plans

A federal judge ordered the Bureau of Land Management this month to place the needs of sage grouse above the needs of cattle ranchers. U.S. District Judge B. Lynn Winmill of Boise ruled the federal land agency did not do that when it renewed five grazing permits in Owyhee County — even though the BLM said the area was important sage grouse habitat. Winmill’s ruling came in response to a lawsuit by the Western Watersheds Project, filed by lawyers with Advocates for the West. What makes Winmill’s latest decision so interesting is it comes as the BLM says it is trying to do the same thing for sage grouse. Its new interim policy is designed to place the interests of sage grouse above other uses in the bird’s most important habitat areas. The BLM is trying to do this over the next couple of years in an effort to prevent a listing of the sage grouse as a threatened species — an action that would limit the BLM’s flexibility. Winmill and Western Watersheds have forced the federal government to protect sage grouse and the millions of acres of sagebrush steppe where they live. In 2007, Winmill ordered the agency to review its 2004 decision not to list because the Bush administration played with the science. That led the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service in 2010 to determine that listing of the 2-foot-tall bird as a threatened species was warranted, but not as high a priority as protecting other species. The Fish and Wildlife Service is reviewing that decision, giving the BLM, western states, ranchers and energy developers time to put in place “regulatory mechanisms” that will keep sage grouse off the list. They have until 2015, a date the agency set and Winmill has not challenged. The BLM put in place in December its interim policy aimed at protecting the sage grouse until then. But as Winmill’s Feb. 7 decision shows, some ranchers may have to cut cattle numbers before then. And everyone may have to make more changes than the interim policy requires. Idaho’s BLM has rated livestock grazing as one of the Top four threats to the grouse behind fire, infrastructure and grasslands conversion. Winmill’s latest decision will require the agency to go back and put new restrictions on grazing permits that are currently pending in Owyhee County and perhaps hundreds of other permits across the West that have been pending for years...more