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Greater sage-grouse

Field Notes


SOS: Save our sage-grouse and the places they call home

Posted on by Meghan Riley

SOS: SAVE OUR SAGE-GROUSE AND THE PLACES THEY CALL HOME

Your voice makes a difference! Will you urge the Bureau of Land Management to take assertive action to save the Greater sage-grouse and Wyoming’s unmatched sagebrush habitat? Find suggested talking points to help you write your comment below.

COMMENT NOW

It’s no secret that the Greater sage-grouse, a symbol of the West’s sweeping sagebrush landscapes, is imperiled. Dire statistics on habitat loss and dwindling populations — echoed across studies and countless articles — paint a sobering picture for the beloved bird:

“Remaining sagebrush covers less than half its historic extent.”

“We are losing 1.3 million acres of sagebrush annually.” 

“Sage-grouse populations have declined 80% since 1965.”

“Greater sage-grouse numbers have been cut almost in half over the past 20 years.”

From the heart of sagebrush country in Wyoming, where the ravages of invasive annual grasses and wildfire have yet to create the mass devastation they have in places like Nevada, it can be hard to comprehend how precarious the situation has become. But unfortunately, Wyoming is not immune to the threats eating away at sage-grouse populations and their habitats. Our state stewards the lion’s share of the world’s remaining sage-grouse and sagebrush — all the more reason to confront these threats head-on.

Of course, Western states have worked collaboratively for years to counteract threats and stave off an endangered species listing (read more here), but it’s clear more needs to be done to support sage-grouse. Fortunately, the Bureau of Land Management is now in the process of updating sage-grouse management plans across the whole of the bird’s range. What does this process mean for us? It means we have a chance to encourage strong action from the agency that manages more sage-grouse habitat than any other, including about 18 million acres right here in Wyoming.

The sagebrush steppe is home to a rich tapestry of over 300 species. How the BLM manages sagebrush habitat has far-reaching implications for an entire ecosystem of plants and animals that need our help, including pronghorn, mule deer, pygmy rabbits, ferruginous hawks, sage thrashers, parasol buckwheat…. The list goes on! As go the sage-grouse, so go our Western rangelands and sagebrush dependent species — which is why it’s imperative the BLM take assertive action to protect sage-grouse and shore up the best remaining sagebrush habitat with this plan.

We can all play a role in guiding the agency to do just that. The BLM is accepting public comments through June 13, and your comments have the power to shape the final plan the BLM adopts.

Will you take action today by urging the BLM to protect irreplaceable sage-grouse habitat in Wyoming? Your comments can be brief, but be sure to share your personal connection to sage-grouse and the broader Wyoming sagebrush biome. We’ve also shared some suggested talking points below to help you write your comment.

TAKE ACTION – COMMENT NOW

Deadline: June 13, 2024

In addition to sharing your personal connection to sage-grouse and the sagebrush ecosystem in Wyoming, you can also can urge the BLM do the following:

  • Grant Wyoming’s irreplaceable sage-grouse habitats the strongest protections. Wyoming is home to over a third of the world’s sage-grouse population because it contains the best remaining habitat. Chief among these, the Golden Triangle in southwest Wyoming boasts the densest populations of sage-grouse on the planet. The unmatched habitat in the Golden Triangle should be granted the strongest possible protections.
  • Direct development away from healthy habitat. There are many demands on BLM lands, but there is also ample acreage available to meet those demands. Infrastructure and energy development should be directed outside of Priority Habitat Management Areas to ensure sage-grouse are afforded the quality habitat they need to thrive.
  • Rely on the best available science to guide management decisions. Efforts to conserve the sage-grouse and its habitat can best be achieved by taking advantage of the latest research and science. The final management plans should lean heavily on the wealth of new data available to allow nimble, adaptive management responses to aberrant declines in sage-grouse populations across jurisdictional boundaries.
  • Maintain gene flow and habitat connectivity. Wyoming has the most robust population of remaining sage-grouse, but we shouldn’t keep all our eggs in that one basket. Critical connectivity areas, on the Montana border in northeast Wyoming and on the Utah border in southwest Wyoming, must remain open to allow for gene flow and dispersal between Wyoming’s populations and those in neighboring states.
  • Take bold action to conserve the habitat sage-grouse rely on. Western states, federal agencies, and private partners have been working together for over a decade to halt sage-grouse population declines, yet population indicators show we are losing this bird across its broader range. Because of this, stronger conservation measures should be adopted at every turn when weighing various management actions.

Wyoming is home to the largest, healthiest remaining swaths of sagebrush on the planet and your local perspective on how this habitat should be managed matters! Send your comment today urging the BLM to take assertive action to save the Greater sage-grouse and Wyoming’s unmatched sagebrush habitat.

Thank you for standing up for sage-grouse and all the creatures they share the steppe with.

Field Notes


Enhancing Protections for the Sage-Grouse: A Pivotal Moment for Conservation

Posted on by Tom Christiansen

Enhancing Protections for the Sage-Grouse: A Pivotal Moment for Conservation

This opinion piece was originally published in the Casper Star Tribune on May 8, 2024 and is republished here with permission. See the original op-ed here.

In June 2007 then Wyoming Governor Dave Freudenthal called on the leaders of Wyoming’s industries, non-governmental organizations and government agencies to gather in Casper for his Sage Grouse Summit. It was an event he hosted and moderated on the stage at Krampert Theatre at Casper College flanked by Directors of BLM Wyoming, Wyoming Game and Fish Department, and the Wyoming Wildlife and Natural Resource Trust.

Freudenthal didn’t mince words, “The scientific picture is clear,” he said. “We need to roll up our sleeves and develop a plan to protect and restore core sage grouse habitat. We have a narrow window of opportunity to protect the grouse and prevent it from being listed as an endangered species,”

These words catalyzed policy-making efforts in Wyoming, often mirrored in other states, which were then largely incorporated into rangewide plans approved by the BLM and USFS in 2015. Cumulatively these plans provided the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service with the basis to determine the Greater Sage-Grouse was not warranted for listing under the Endangered Species Act. Unfortunately, the plans developed in 2015 were never fully implemented.

After a 33-year career with the Wyoming Game and Fish Department, the last 15 years of which were as the state’s sage-grouse coordinator, I learned that this is about much more than just a bird. The problems associated with a breakdown in the health of sagebrush country resulting from massive wildfires, invasive plants like cheatgrass, woody species expansion, and human infrastructure and disturbance impacts all of us, here in Wyoming and across the West. These lands underpin the economies of our rural communities.

Using satellite imagery we’ve recently learned that we’re losing 1.3 million acres of functioning sagebrush habitat every year. And because the bird depends on healthy sagebrush habitat, the rangewide population of sage-grouse has declined 80 percent since 1965 and half of that decline has happened since 2002. Many of Wyoming’s populations have suffered less than those in some other states thanks to our soils and climate being better suited to growing sagebrush than other plants. And there have been short-term increases in some populations over the last two years thanks to less drought. But over the long-term all populations have declined in spite of the massive and well-intended efforts undertaken to prevent the need to list the species as threatened or endangered.

So, almost two decades after Governor Freudenthal convened stakeholders in Casper, the window to ensure a future for the bird is even narrower. But we have now an opportunity to course correct and realize a healthier future for this ecosystem. The BLM, which oversees 69 million acres of sage-grouse habitat across 10 states, and 18 million acres of land in the Cowboy State, is currently updating the prior plans using new science and input from its partners.

As I review the plan and discuss the issues with former colleagues I’ve come to the conclusion that it is now imperative that all of our collaborative conservation efforts shift from a sage-grouse focus to a sagebrush biome focus in order to more effectively address the threats facing not only sage-grouse but the entire ecosystem and those species, including human users, reliant on it. I implore the BLM to better incorporate this concept into their decision document.

Paramount to any plan must be a commitment to transparency and collaboration in managing the sage-grouse habitat. Open data sharing across administrative boundaries is essential in fostering an inclusive environment where scientists, policy makers, and the public can access and contribute to the ecological data that guide management decisions. This approach not only enhances the trust and cooperation among stakeholders but also strengthens the scientific basis for those decisions and provides defensible evidence of the successes and failures of management actions. With sound data incorporated into adaptive management tools like the Targeted Annual Warning System outlined in the draft plan, managers can quickly respond to threats such as habitat degradation or sudden population declines.

A male Greater sage-grouse with puffed-up chest in sagebrush landscape

Finally, there are some relatively intact landscapes that rise above others in terms of their value to sage-grouse and associated species. I support efforts to secure the most effective protections for these “best of the best” areas which are resistant to impacts like invasive species and resilient in their ability to return to good habitat after an impact such as wildfire. They are the cornerstones upon which the survival of the sage-grouse depends. Irreplaceable places, such as the Golden Triangle in western Wyoming, have such high biological value that these should have the highest level of protections.

The current proposal by the BLM to update its sage-grouse management plans is an important step forward. By focusing on strategic habitat management, implementing open data practices and advanced adaptive management tools, we can forge a sustainable path for the sage-grouse. This approach will not only benefit the bird but also the myriad other species and human communities that rely on a healthy sagebrush ecosystem. It’s a chance to reaffirm our commitment to conserving a vital part of our natural heritage thereby ensuring that we hand these natural resources in good condition to future generations.

Have questions about the BLM’s updated sage-grouse management plans? Send us an email or write a comment below.

Images: © Scott Copeland Images

Field Notes


A Wyoming guide to recent Bureau of Land Management rules and land use plans

Posted on by Max Owens

A Wyoming guide to recent Bureau of Land Management rules and land use plans

Over the past year, the Bureau of Land Management has been busy with a bevy of rules that, once finalized, will impact public lands across Wyoming and the West. (You might remember hearing from us about the Public Lands Rule, Methane Rule, and Oil and Gas Rule — and you may have even written comments on these proposed rules.) Now, it seems April is the month that all these efforts have begun to bear fruit: With near-weekly announcements of finalized rules, it’s certainly been a busy time for the agency. And, I’ll add, for anyone trying to keep up!

Fortunately, these new rules contain plenty of conservation victories worth celebrating. But we can’t blame you if keeping them straight has led to some serious head-scratching.

To add to the confusion, the publishing of these rules has happened alongside the comment periods for additional BLM land use plan revisions and proposed rules. (With any luck, we’ll have even more to celebrate when the Western Solar Plan, Rock Springs Resource Management Plan, and updates to the rangewide Greater sage-grouse plan are finalized.)

Whether you’ve been closely following the news, are just tuning in, or are one of the many WOC supporters who shared comments with the BLM, this quick guide will help you get a handle on the agency’s recent activity — and what each of these rules and plans means for Wyoming’s public lands and wildlife.

RECENTLY FINALIZED BLM RULES

PUBLIC LANDS RULE

The Public Lands Rule adds conservation to the list of multiple uses allowed on public lands, placing it on equal footing with uses such as grazing, energy development, and recreation. It does not prevent oil and gas drilling, mining, or grazing on public lands — but it does enshrine protection and restoration as necessary components of responsible management. In doing so, our wildlife habitat, areas of cultural importance, water quality, and landscape intactness all stand to benefit.

The BLM manages 18.4 million acres of land across Wyoming — nearly one-third of the state. While drought, wildfires, and decreasing land health threaten these lands, the Public Lands Rule provides a cohesive framework for implementing conservation measures to address these threats and slow negative impacts from climate change — while continuing to manage for the many uses of these lands that allow Wyoming communities to thrive.

OIL AND GAS RULE

The most significant update to oil and gas leasing on federal lands in decades, the Fluid Mineral Leases and Leasing Process Rule directs development away from lands with little to no potential for oil and gas — thereby allowing better management of places with important habitat, recreational values, and cultural resources. It also ensures that companies set aside more money to plug wells after drilling, which is significant considering that previously, required clean-up money would have covered the cost of fewer than one out of 100 wells. These common-sense reforms, that follow in the footsteps of state policy, are a win for the health of Wyoming landscapes and for Wyoming taxpayers, as increased oil and gas royalty rates will result in better returns for Wyomingites and fund vital public services.

METHANE RULE

This rule aims to reduce emissions of methane, a potent greenhouse gas, from oil and gas operations on public lands. Also known as the Waste Prevention Rule, it updates regulations more than 40 years old by requiring oil and gas operators to take reasonable steps to prevent wasted methane during operations such as venting and flaring. The reduced emissions will benefit Wyoming’s air quality, and conserved methane will be available to power homes and industries. Through additional required royalty payments on natural gas emissions that could have been avoidable, the rule will also ensure Wyoming taxpayers are fairly compensated for natural gas that is unnecessarily wasted during production.


(Note: While similar in aim, this rule is separate from the Environmental Protection Agency’s final methane rule, which was published in December 2023. BLM’s rule curbs wasted methane on federal and Tribal lands and will go into effect this summer, while EPA’s sweeping rule curbs methane emissions on both public and private lands and will take several additional years before it is enforceable.)

RECENT BLM PLANS OF NOTE, YET TO BE FINALIZED

UPDATED WESTERN SOLAR PLAN

This region-wide plan (also known as the Solar Programmatic Environmental Impact Statement) will identify the best locations across 11 Western states for future utility-scale solar development on federal lands, along with areas that should be closed to solar. By proactively screening for wildlife, sensitive habitats, cultural resources, and other values and resources, it aims to reduce foreseeable land use conflicts. Our climate future depends on the addition of renewables to our energy portfolio — and the Western Solar Plan represents an opportunity to ensure solar doesn’t come at the cost of our iconic wildlife and other Wyoming values.


The Western Solar Plan is currently in draft form, and the period for comments on the plan concluded earlier this month. If you wrote to the BLM in favor of responsibly sited solar in Wyoming, thank you! Read WOC’s Western Solar Plan comments here.

Updated Greater Sage-Grouse Management Plan

Building off the BLM’s 2015 and 2019 plans for Greater sage-grouse, this plan enhances protections for this most-loved of Western birds — a prominent symbol of the threatened and ever-diminishing sagebrush biome. Drawing on ample new data and research, the update covers 77 resource management plans across 10 Western states, including Wyoming. Because the BLM manages the vast majority of Greater sage-grouse habitat on the continent, it is imperative that the agency takes bold action with this plan revision to shore up remaining, quality habitat and stave off further declines. As we dive deeper into the plan’s management alternatives, count on us to keep you informed and keep your eye out for opportunities to speak up for sage-grouse protections. Wyoming is the beating heart of the sagebrush biome and what happens here has outsize implications for the bird’s future, so your participation and local knowledge will be of added benefit to the agency. The plan is currently in draft form, with a public comment period ending June 13.

Rock Springs Resource Management Plan

A plan nearly 12 years in waiting, the Rock Springs Resource Management Plan outlines how much of the northern Red Desert — including the Big Sandy Foothills, Adobe Town, and more — will be managed for the next 15–20 years. The draft plan favors conservation of the Red Desert’s extraordinary habitat, cultural resources, and wide-open spaces while protecting opportunities for recreation. In December, WOC represented conservation on a task force convened by the governor to form consensus recommendations for the BLM alongside livestock, oil and gas, sporting groups, and other interests. Much common ground was found as we defended the Red Desert’s key landscapes from potentially damaging proposals.

There’s a good chance you heard and answered our calls to advocate for the Red Desert’s treasures. The public comment period on the draft RMP ended in January, and we’re confident that your passionate advocacy will result in a strong final plan. Thank you for your many supportive comments.

THANK YOU

As time marches on, it’s essential that we continually revisit, refine, and revise the rules and plans guiding management of our public lands. The items listed above are the finalized and in-progress products of this important process. They represent the modernizing of old policies that often had the effect of undermining conservation interests. They are also significant strides towards more proactive management of our public lands.

Importantly, the true value of these rules and plans lies with the public input that helped to build them. They are valuable because people like you spoke up — people who care for, understand, recreate or work on, live near, and love these public lands. As these frameworks for management move from draft stage to final rule or plan, we can’t thank you enough for your support and advocacy. Wyoming’s public lands are better for it!

Have lingering questions about recent BLM rules and land use revisions? Send us an email or write a comment below.

Field Notes


A wildlife legacy to uphold

Posted on by Meghan Riley

A wildlife legacy to uphold

IMAGINE THIS: It’s spring in Wyoming’s Red Desert, and daybreak unfolds around you. As the sun crests the horizon and illuminates mile upon mile of open sagebrush country, the songbirds’ dawn chorus reaches its crescendo. Sage thrashers and Brewer’s sparrows sing their hearts out. At intervals, the resonant “wups” of displaying Greater sage-grouse join in. Far in the distance, bands of mule deer amble along a well-worn game trail, browsing their way towards summer pasture as the snows recede. A pair of ferruginous hawks wheel overhead in the brightening sky.

Image: ©Scott Copeland Images

It’s a scene that has played out largely unchanged for millenia. Whether today, 100 years ago, or 10,000 years ago, people have experienced the vastness and natural bounty of the Red Desert. These days, as wildlife and the lands they rely on are increasingly whittled into the margins, fewer and fewer places on Earth can offer the same. The Red Desert’s immense territory of sagebrush is a precious thing, supporting groups of species you can’t find many places in North America anymore. It is worth our time and toil to keep it whole and healthy for those who come after us.

Thankfully, we have a brief opportunity to make a big impact. With the revision of the Rock Springs Resource Management Plan by the Bureau of Land Management, the managers who oversee land use in the Red Desert are reassessing everything. The agency will carefully weigh public comments as it decides how best to manage these lands for decades to come. If we want to uphold the Red Desert’s extraordinary wildlife legacy, now is the time to speak up in favor of management directives that will help conserve the area’s exceptional natural resources.

Image: Ken Driese

The BLM is choosing between management actions that will make a real difference to the wildlife that depend on these lands for their survival. Whether you want to see the world’s longest mule deer migration persist, provide desert elk with safe birthing grounds, ensure better nest success for hawks and eagles, or see the most densely populated Greater sage-grouse habitat on the planet protected, your input during this process is critical. With foresight and careful management, generations of people and animals yet to come will be able to experience the Red Desert much the same as those who came before. The opportunity to make that careful, balanced management a reality is here — and it is up to us to speak to the values we hold dear on this landscape.

The Bureau of Land Management is accepting public comment on the Rock Springs draft Resource Management Plan through January 17. To make a comment, visit our Red Desert action page. To learn more about provisions in the plan relating to wildlife, don’t hesitate to reach out to me via email.

Field Notes


Story Behind the Photo: Barbara McMahill

Posted on by Claire Cella

Join Barbara and other photographers by submitting your own shot of Wyoming for the Outdoor Council’s 2024 Calendar Contest. You can enter your photos via Instagram or email. To submit your photo(s) via Instagram, you must have a public Instagram account so that we’re able to view your submission. Upload your photo(s) and add the hashtag #OurWyoming.

To submit your photo(s) via email, send your photo(s) to claire@wyomingoutdoorcouncil.org.

For more information about the contest, visit our calendar contest page.

Barbara McMahill saw a photograph of a Greater sage-grouse on a magazine cover a few years ago and was instantly enamored. When she mentioned the bird to a local Lander friend, she was told that it was actually possible to visit the bird’s breeding grounds, called leks, to watch them in the early spring. It wasn’t long before McMahill found herself at the edge of the Twin Creek lek, about 20 miles from Lander, watching the spectacle herself. She now goes out with her camera every year.

“It’s always special,” she says of viewing the sage-grouse, “because you need to wake up suuuuper early to see it. But they really do put on an amazing show. It’s just beautiful to watch. In the end, you do have to sit for quite awhile and it’s usually cold, but when the sun starts to come up over the horizon, there are five to seven minutes of just incredible light. I cannot even describe it.”

That’s why McMahill takes her camera — so she can attempt to capture a moment that is indescribable in words so that others can experience it, too.

“I’m no professional photographer,” she laughs. “I’m a veterinarian. But photography has always been present in my life. I was given my first camera as a present from my family when I was in fourth grade and I started to take photography a little more seriously about 20 years ago. Now, I just have fun trying to capture the beauty of each scene and sharing those with others. Sometimes, like that sage-grouse image, the moment just isn’t describable.”

The image she took that won placement in the 2022 calendar is a male sage-grouse in the snow-dusted grass. His speckled brown and gray wing feathers frame a white, fluffy chest concealing two vibrantly yellow air sacs. “The sun was hitting him just right,” McMahill says of the moment she pushed the shutter. What’s even more amazing about this display that the camera can’t capture, she explains, are the sound effects. During the sage-grouse’s mating dance, there are vigorous wing swishes and a series of clipped, soft coos before two pops as their air sacs expand. It’s truly a sight to be seen — and a sound to be heard.

McMahill wasn’t always so interested in birds. She grew up in Lisbon, Portugal, a city where “birds for me were either pigeons or sparrows,” she says. When she moved to Lander with her husband 10 years ago, she started to notice the diversity of birds in the region compared to her hometown. When COVID-19 sent many of us inside, and our attention was drawn longingly out our windows, McMahill became curious about birds and invested in a telephoto lens to better capture the feathered creatures that visited her backyard. She’s since found some bird-watching friends in Lander and has learned a lot from them as well as the Merlin app, a global bird guide for mobile devices. In addition to sage-grouse, she adores the springtime vocals of the meadowlarks and the return of the mountain bluebirds to the barren but budding tree branches each year. (She submitted a photo of a bluebird too, which we also selected for the calendar.)

McMahill never planned to live in Wyoming, but she’s glad she does. Not only is the local community a constant source of joy, fun, and support, but, “I’m surrounded by beauty.” She spoke of a recent trip to the Red Desert for the first time with her family. “It looks like a place that has been home to not only a lot of different groups of people, but also a diversity of animals for years and years. I realize that keeping these places as they are is very important. It’s part of the reason I — we all — want to live here.”

“It [The Red Desert] looks like a place that has been home to not only a lot of different groups of people, but also a diversity of animals for years and years. I realize that keeping these places as they are is very important. It’s part of the reason I — we all — want to live here.”

— barbara mcmahill

In fact, the Greater sage-grouse relies on landscapes like the Red Desert — large, intact, fenceless areas of sagebrush steppe — for its survival. And it’s not only sage-grouse, but thousands of other species as well. In recent years, this habitat has been dwindling across the West, and as a result, so too have sage-grouse populations that can survive nowhere else. The Red Desert is of particular importance to sage-grouse conservation efforts as it hosts the highest density of sage-grouse on Earth. In peak years you can find more than 100 males visiting leks in this region, whereas other leks average only 20-35.

Local efforts to protect Wyoming’s sagebrush steppe and the sage-grouse who rely upon it are ongoing— we’ve often discussed the importance of the Greater Sage-Grouse Core Area Protection Executive Order signed in 2008 by then Gov. Dave Freudenthal and renewed by his two successors. In addition to this state strategy, there’s a new opportunity on the horizon for further protections for sage-grouse: the recently released draft Rock Springs Resource Management Plan from the Bureau of Land Management. It’s a land use plan that’s been 12 years in the making, and in one alternative, the agency would rebalance management priorities to better support conservation in addition to other uses. This alternative would close much of the Red Desert — which includes significant portions of sagebrush steppe — to industrial development. This is in stark contrast to current management where a majority is open to development and poses a threat to sage-grouse habitat.

We’ll keep you updated on the ways in which you can make a difference in protecting this habitat and all the species, including the Greater sage-grouse, who rely on it for their survival.

And we’re grateful for photographers like McMahill who wake up before dawn and brave the cold to capture this one-of-a-kind spectacle every spring. It’s images like these that allow us at the Wyoming Outdoor Council to better tell the story of the iconic Wyoming species who share their home with us. If you’ve taken your own wildlife shots, send them to us! Our calendar contest is open until September 15 — and this year there are prizes and a chance to have your work in an exhibit. You can read more here.

Field Notes


Field Notes: September updates from the Wyoming Outdoor Council

Posted on by Alan Rogers
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FROM THE LEGISLATURE: Without any public disclosure that the topic would be discussed, and after public comment had closed, a Wyoming legislative committee decided September 11 to once again consider legislation that could effectively kill the state’s rooftop solar industry by changing our net metering law. Why does this sound vague? Because the committee never defined the content of the bill nor had a draft bill on the agenda. We’ll be discussing this topic at our next Conservation Cafeteria session, 12 p.m. Wednesday, October 7 on Zoom. Watch for an upcoming email to register.


LEASING PAUSED IN GROUSE HABITAT: The Bureau of Land Management has deferred all parcels in Greater sage-grouse habitat management areas from Wyoming’s upcoming oil and gas lease sale. This came in response to a federal court ruling early this summer that determined the BLM had failed to prioritize leasing outside core habitat as required by 2015 land management plan revisions. The Wyoming Outdoor Council formally protested the September sale, which originally included all parcels from a postponed June sale and more than 330,000 acres of sage-grouse habitat.

Also in the past weeks, Outdoor Council staff submitted a protest of a Converse County oil and gas project that has the potential to destroy sage-grouse leks and harm hawk, falcon, and owl populations.


TETON COUNTY WATER QUALITY: In the continued effort to protect drinking water in Jackson Hole, the Outdoor Council took several steps in recent weeks to guide county officials toward more effective regulations. First, we submitted detailed recommendations on water quality protections that should be included in Teton County’s Comprehensive Plan, which is currently being updated. These include modernized regulations for small wastewater facilities, requiring septic system inspections when property is bought and sold, providing incentives for homeowners to connect to existing sewer lines, creating a management plan to address the high levels of recreational use on rivers and lakes, and establishing a water quality database. We have also proposed a new rule that would require the Teton County Public Health Department to notify the public when elevated levels of nitrates are detected in any of the county’s 114 public water systems, investigate the source of the pollution, and require remedial action if necessary.

 

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