American Oil and Gas Reporter - September 2019 - 27

with USFWS and NMFS under Section
7 of the ESA. USFWS says the new regulations codify alternative consultation
mechanisms it claims will provide greater
efficiency in how those consultations are
conducted and also establish a 60-day
deadline extendable to 120 days for informal consultations.
As part of improving the consultation
process, USFWS says it has modified

several definitions. "Destruction or adverse
modification" now means "a direct or indirect alteration that appreciably diminishes the value of critical habitat as a
whole," the new rule reads.
It now defines "effects of the action"
as including "the consequences of other
activities that are caused by the proposed
action," and says a consequence is caused
by the proposed action "if it would not

occur but for the proposed action and is
reasonably certain to occur."
In the context of a proposed action,
USFWS says it has revised the definition
of an "environmental base line" to make
it clear that the base line "should be used
to compare the condition of the species
and the designated critical habitat in the
action area with and without the effects
of the proposed action."
r

USFS Amends Its Sage Grouse Plans
The U.S. Forest Service has proposed
changes for how it manages greater sage
grouse in Colorado, Idaho, Nevada,
Wyoming and Utah.
Meanwhile, the state of Colorado is
protesting how Gunnison sage grouse
are treated in the Bureau of Land Management's resource management plan affecting its Uncompahgre, Co., field office,
which oversees BLM lands in Mesa,
Delta, Montrose, Gunnison, Ouray and
San Miguel counties in the state's southwestern corner.
In announcing USFS's proposed land
management plan amendments on Aug. 1,
U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Sonny Perdue
stated, "USFS continues to promote our
multiple use mission while ensuring conservation of greater sage grouse habitat.
We are sharing the stewardship of the lands
with Western state governors. Their extensive
participation throughout this process was
the key to landscape-scale conservation
that aligns our policies and practices across
local, state and federal jurisdictions."
Copies of the proposed amendments
as well as final environmental impact
statements may be accessed at
https://www.fs.usda.gov/detail/r4/home/?ci
d=stelprd3843381. Publication of the notice on Aug. 2 in the Denver Post and
Salt Lake Tribune began a 60-day protest
period, USFS notes.
The BLM published its proposed RMP
amendments addressing greater sage
grouse for the same five states plus Oregon
and northeastern California in the Dec.
10, 2018, Federal Register (AOGR, January 2019, pg. 119).
USFS says it hopes to issue a final
record of decision regarding the greater
sage grouse this fall.
The agency notes these proposed
amendments will replace land management
plans it adopted in 2015, following concerns raised by stakeholders that the 2015
plans would adversely affect economic
growth and did not align with state conservation plans.
Consequently, USFS says, "The 2019
plans have been adapted to take into ac-

count site-specific conditions to ensure
ranchers, permittees and industry can
adapt to their local conditions rather than
be forced to conform to a one-size-fitsall, national approach."
Specifically, USFS says:
· The 2019 plans allow for greater
flexibility and local control of conservation
and management actions related to sage
grouse. It says the Department of Agriculture has shifted grazing guidelines
from rigid, prescriptive standards to common-sense, locally-driven strategies.
· The 2019 plans align state and federal conservation standards so ranchers
and other land users have one set of rules.
· The 2019 plans maintain the goal
of preventing any net loss of critical sage
grouse habitat, but remove the 2015 plans'
requirement for a "net conservation gain."
The Independent Petroleum Association
of America comments that the revisions,
which affect 5.2 million acres of USFS
lands, leave in place most of the protection
measures in the 2015 plans.
One of the biggest revisions, IPAA
adds, is that the new conservation plans
remove the general habitat management
designation on 865,000 acres-mostly in
Nevada (566,800 acres) and Idaho
(248,000 acres)-identified in the 2015
plans as sagebrush focal areas.
Colorado Protest
The day before Secretary Perdue's announcement, Colorado Department of
Natural Resources Executive Director
Dan Gibbs sent a letter to BLM complaining that the Uncompahgre field office
(UFO) proposed resource management
plan (PRMP) provided insufficient protection for big-game migration corridors
and winter range, and failed to conserve
and recover the Gunnison sage grouse,
which was listed as threatened under the
Endangered Species Act in 2014.
Regarding big game, Gibbs contends
that oil and gas development can fragment
winter range and primary migration corridors. He points out that in previous
comments, Colorado had requested BLM

limit the density of surface facilities in
highest priority winter habitats and migratory corridors to no greater than one
well pad per square mile or one linear
mile of road/travel route per square mile.
"The UFO PRMP indicates that BLM
prefers to consider travel route density
limitations during travel management
planning," Gibbs complains, adding:
"There is an established body of evidence
that timing limitation stipulations on oil
and gas and other development activities
are not adequate to maintain the functionality of big game habitats."
Regarding the Gunnison sage grouse,
Gibbs argues the RMPs for the ESAlisted bird "should provide for a higher
level of protection than the ones ultimately adopted for the unlisted greater
sage grouse."
He says the state would like for BLM
to "include clearly described and prioritized targets for sage grouse habitat
restoration in the PRMP."
In addition, Gibbs' letter states:
· Noise impacts should be limited
across all sage grouse habitats from March
1 to July 15 to 10 A-weighted decibels
(dBA) above ambient and a maximum of
30 dBA.
· BLM should reserve the ability
to implement additional area closures
where bird populations drop below a
certain level.
Finally, Gibbs criticizes the timing of
the PRMP, saying the state was given but
a single day to review the final version
before it was released to the public, which
triggered a 30-day protest period. He comments, "In the year that passed between
the time cooperators saw the first draft of
Alternative E in 2018 and its final rollout
in June 2019, substantial changes were
made to Alternative E . . . that appear to
favor energy resource development." ❒

Coming In October
PAW convention coverage
SEPTEMBER 2019 27
https://www.fs.usda.gov/detail/r4/home/?cid=stelprd3843381 https://www.fs.usda.gov/detail/r4/home/?cid=stelprd3843381
American Oil and Gas Reporter - September 2019

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