Colo. governor asks to keep sage-grouse land off lease sale

Colorado Gov. John Hickenlooper is asking the Bureau of Land Management to remove greater sage-grouse (Centrocercus urophasianus) habitat from a planned oil and gas lease sale. The Dec. 6 sale includes 227 parcels — covering 236,000 acres — for oil and gas leasing in the state. Hickenlooper, a Democrat, said almost half of that acreage has been identified by the BLM as sage-grouse habitat. He also expressed concern that the BLM has proposed significant changes to sage-grouse conservation plans in Colorado and other Western states.

Read Hickenlooper’s letter here, and read the story in the Grand Junction Daily Sentinel here.