The District of Idaho Judge B. Lynn Winmill of the United States District Court has issued a preliminary injunction, which suspends efforts by the Bureau of Land Management to weaken legislation protecting the greater sage grouse in ten states. This comes from the Trump administration's drive for the country to have "energy dominance" with a series of efforts invigorating the oil and gas industry in the country. Particularly, the use of public land for oil and gas drilling has been encouraged in areas where there have been existing laws protecting its natural environment, both flora and fauna, among which the greater sage grouse is the most threatened.
Around 10.7 million acres of land in the west are protected from oil and gas drilling, where large populations of the bird live, with their habitat called "sagebrush focal areas." Under the amendments proposed by the Department of Interior's Bureau of Land Management, around 1.8 million acres focused mostly in the states of Oregon and Montana will be left untouched, while the remaining land would be subject to oil and gas exploration.
Judge Winmill said that although the restraint on the BLM's move to loosen the existing laws on wildlife conservation in the area is only a temporary measure, the legal challenge brought by environmentalist groups in the first place are most likely to win the case. According to an interview with The New York Times, Judge Winmill noted that the proposed measures by the BLM are very likely to cause a decline in sage grouse populations in the affected areas.
The Department of Interior argued that leasing would be a slow process, yet the judge disagrees since the main priority of the Trump administration is to bolster growth in the oil and gas sector as soon as possible. The spokesman for the department Nicholas Goodwin argued that the plan is "legally sound," balancing the state's economic needs and the protection of the environment. He mentioned that the states involved in the administration's plans were very supportive of it, with both Democratic and Republican representatives on an agreement. Similarly, other industry groups are not pleased with all of the ruling. Kathleen Sgamma, president of Western Energy Alliance, singled out the judge who issued the ruling, saying how he has been very involved in sage grouse issues for more than a decade of his tenure.
The decision by the District of Idaho would be the first major overturn of the administration's plan to reverse policies on the protection of the sage grouse. This is seen as a major win by environmentalists fighting for its conservation, especially in the face of environmental degradation and climate change. Michael Saul, a senior lawyer at the Center for Biological Diversity, notes in an interview with the New York Times that this ruling has been a very important reprieve for the sage grouse as the "canary in the coal mine" for the American West ecosystem.
