Judge reinstates proposed listing of grouse
RENO, Nev. — A U.S. judge who earlier ruled federal wildlife officials illegally denied Endangered Species Act protection for a population of bi-state sage grouse in California and Nevada in 2015 has reinstated the proposed listing of the bird as threatened until a new review determines whether it’s on the brink of extinction.
In the meantime, U.S. District Chief Magistrate Judge Joseph Spero in San Francisco also ordered on Friday reinstatement of the proposed designation of more than 2,800 square miles of critical habitat along the Sierra’s eastern front.
Spero said in a ruling in May the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service ignored its own best scientific evidence when it reversed course three years ago on its 2013 proposal to declare the bi-state grouse threatened.
His latest ruling gives the agency until Oct. 1, 2019, to publish a new final listing determination in the Federal Register.
There is a dwindling number of bi-state sage grouse found along the California-Nevada line in the Mono Basin. They’re related to but distinct from the greater sage grouse, which lives in a dozen western states and is at the center of a dispute over Trump administration efforts to roll back protections adopted under President Obama.
Leaders of three conservation groups who sued to protect the bistate grouse said it could help save the ground-dwelling bird as well as other species with distinct population segments isolated from larger, related populations.
The agency had no immediate comment.