All because of a small chicken-sized bird known as the “greater sage grouse.”
Unelected and unaccountable officials at the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) are working to impose a federal “strategy” to protect the habitat of the sage grouse in 11 Western states on an area the size of Texas.
In truth, BLM’s scheme – concocted by career bureaucrats and Obama political appointees – will do little for the bird. But it will inflict serious long-term damage on this vast region of America, on our energy resources, and especially on private property rights.
Please sign CFACT’s public statement today and together let’s tell President Obama and the BLM that their plan to micromanage the land policies of our Western states is a terrible mistake.
To make matters worse, the Interior Department may even soon decide to list the sage grouse as a federally protected “threatened” or “endangered” species to comply with a court-ordered deadline of September 30th.
Brenda Richards, president of the Public Lands Council, has warned, “If sage grouse are designated for protection under the ESA [Endangered Species Act], many ranchers may no longer be permitted to allow livestock to graze on or near sage grouse habitat.”
“This decision would not only destroy the ranching industry in the west, which is the backbone of many rural communities, it would also halt the conservation efforts currently underway by ranchers,” she added.
With the September 30th deadline approaching, this gives us less than 60 days to make our voices heard against the sage grouse being listed as “threatened” or “endangered.”
As for the BLM plan, by targeting an area of 165 million acres for severe land-use restrictions, the feds, in effect, are declaring economic activity in the rural West is incompatible with the sage grouse’s recovery.
Nothing could be further from the truth.
States in the affected region have already developed comprehensive plans that will reverse the decline of the bird and safeguard the livelihood of millions of citizens throughout the West.
State and local officials have worked with wildlife biologists to tailor their plans to the vastly different environmental conditions prevailing throughout the region. They’ve found ways to help the sage grouse and preserve the way of life of local residents together.
But the radical Greens and federal regulators will have none of it.
The state plans center on environmental stewardship based on wildlife biology. But at the center of the BLM plan, it is all about federal land-use control.
If the BLM were truly interested in recovery of the greater sage grouse, it would embrace these state plans.
Its refusal to do so exposes its real agenda: Expanding federal control over the rural West, and locking up precious mineral and energy resources that could benefit every American.
That’s why we need your signature on CFACT’s petition, and hope you’ll share it with your friends so we can enlist tens of thousands of other concerned citizens.
Farmers, ranchers, and tens of thousands of people employed in the region’s oil and gas fields are the first targets in BLM's crosshairs.
Indeed, a spokesman for the Western Energy Alliance recently predicted “The economic impact of sage-grouse restrictions on just the oil and natural gas industry will be between 9,170 and 18,250 jobs and $2.4 billion and $4.8 billion in annual economic impact across Colorado, Montana, Utah, and Wyoming.”
If the feds can get away with inflicting pain like this, it will only whet their appetite for future land grabs.
That’s why their battle is our battle.
Governors, local officials, and business people in the West are outraged over the BLM’s action. They need the support of Americans from across the country.
Please help CFACT put an end to the BLM’s land-grabbing scheme. Sign the petition. Share it with your friends.
Together let's tell the federal bureaucracy that it has already gone too far.
We, the people, are calling a halt.
For nature and people too,
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