The Post editorial: Interior secretary Ryan Zinke undid five years of hard work to save the greater sage grouse and its habitat.

U.S. Secretary of the Interior Ryan Zinke undid five years of hard work and collaboration when he changed existing habitat protection rules for the greater sage grouse in favor of captive breeding and population targets.

Zinke should know that captive breeding of endangered and threatened species misses the point.

If a population of birds has nowhere to live, breed and flourish, hitting a population number through captive breeding is futile and unsustainable.

We called the work done by governors, landowners, oil and gas companies and the federal government “nothing short of remarkable” when former Interior Secretary Sally Jewell announced in 2015 her decision not to list the sage grouse as endangered. Everyone, including Gov. John Hickenlooper, worked hard to avoid a listing of the bird, as it would stifle the kind of collaboration that could result in better outcomes for the birds and the millions of acres of sage brush habitat that spreads from Colorado to California.

It also allowed for more flexibility for those who live, work and develop land in the critical habitat area than a federal listing as an endangered species would have allowed.

Zinke, in his short tenure, ordered a review of the plan, and then made the decision this month to immediately implement a change to the rules. Hickenlooper, Wyoming Gov. Matt Mead and Nevada Gov. Brian Sandoval all urged Zinke not to undo their hard work.

But Zinke has moved forward with his plan to abandon efforts to preserve sage grouse habitat. It strikes of hubris. We had high hopes for Zinke — a son of the West who seems to appreciate conservation — but this is a serious misstep.

As The Denver Post’s Bruce Finley reported this month, the habitat protection approach would have benefited another 300 species.

The Trump administration’s new rule will make it easier for economic development activities on these lands, like running cattle, drilling for oil and gas, recreation and mining for coal. Idaho Gov. Butch Otter was among those clamoring for changes to Jewell’s rule, which he said would have stifled economic development in his state. His legal challenge to the rule focused on the creation of focus areas. Otter cheered the news, and pledged to work with Zinke to make sure the new plan aligns with Idaho’s science-based conservation plan.

We hope that, moving forward, Zinke is open to adopting state plans that have been developed to protect habitats, especially areas that already have healthy populations of sage grouse.

We thought the plan drafted under Jewell, but never implemented, struck a good balance. Protecting these uniquely beautiful fowl with their spotted plume, quirky mating dance and their odd blooping gobbles is important.

The populations of the bird have struggled, dropping from millions to somewhere between 200,000 and 500,000. Let’s not let the population follow the route of the black-footed ferret where captive breeding is struggling to reacquaint our prairies with a once-thought-extinct weasel-like creature that kept a check on prairie dog populations.

The members of The Denver Post’s editorial board are William Dean Singleton, chairman; Mac Tully, CEO and publisher; Chuck Plunkett, editor of the editorial pages; Megan Schrader, editorial writer; and Cohen Peart, opinion editor.