WASHINGTON, D.C.: Interior Secretary Zinke has issued a secretarial order beginning a review of federal and state sage grouse plans. The plans were the result of an extensive, bipartisan, collaborative agreement between conservationists, ranchers and local governments to save the sage grouse before it became endangered. Once found throughout the West, the Greater Sage Grouse are rapidly declining.
In response Athan Manuel, director of Public Lands Protection for the Sierra Club issued the following statement:
“With this order Secretary Zinke has undermined years of collaboration and hard work to preserve the sage grouse and the health of the great outdoors they reflect. Zinke’s order makes it clear that the interests of the oil and gas industries block his vision of the future. As with other reviews under the Trump administration, this order reeks of rollbacks to vital health and environmental safeguards.”
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