Governor Mark Gordon (R-WY) is expressing dissatisfaction with the Bureau of Land Management’s (BLM) Final Resource Management Plan (RMP) for the Greater Sage-grouse Land Use Plan Amendments and Environmental Impact Statement (EIS). The Final EIS applies to all BLM administered land in Wyoming.
The Governor has issued the following statement:
As expected, the sage-grouse amendments’ final form did not take into account the state’s most substantial comments that were informed by decades of expertise in Greater sage-grouse management in Wyoming. Three Wyoming governors have demonstrated their commitment to sage-grouse over the past 16 years. Wyoming is the stronghold of sage-grouse in the West, with millions of acres of valuable sage-grouse habitat; we have shown how to successfully manage this bird and do so in a way that allows for protection of core habitat alongside responsible development.
It is unfortunate the BLM’s approach and plan altogether ignores Wyoming’s leadership, experience, and knowledge with regard to management of both sage-grouse populations and habitat. BLM’s planning efforts reflect extreme indifference to the primacy vested in Wyoming’s exclusive authority to manage sage-grouse populations.
The document offered to Wyoming today is a product of a process that devalued state-generated science and collaboration. As we digest the document fully and develop our response, our priority will be to defend the state’s management authority of sage-grouse under the Executive Order. Additional layers of federal regulation on top of state management will hinder our ability to develop practical, workable solutions, without perceivably benefitting neither sage-grouse nor its habitat. I am hopeful that as we move into a new Trump Administration that we can shape a functional Record of Decision in the New Year. Wyoming has been and remains committed to the long-term well-being and management of Greater Sage-grouse.
The Governor will lead state agencies through a Protest response in addition to his Consistency Review, due Dec. 16, 2024 and Jan. 7, 2025 respectively.
