The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service caved to legal threats from environmentalists and basically gave them a key to lock up public lands on the Western Slope in the name of the Gunnison sage grouse.
Behold the crappy deal: Radical environmentalists agreed to stop suing the government if they would just give them what they want, which is to block grazing, energy development housing construction and magically shield thousands of birds from climate change in the Gunnison Valley, Dove Creek, and Utah.
With the suspension of the lawsuit to name the bird as endangered rather than threatened, the feds have 30 months to come up with a plan to give enivros all the restrictions against human activity they want.
Don’t bother with the math, we’ve already done it. Lo and behold, the final plan is due in October 2020, just days or weeks until the next presidential election.
It’s a giant punt by the feds that lets environmentalists keep the land in limbo until Trump is re-elected, or as they are hedging their bets, until a Democrat beholden to the green wing of the party is elected. And they all are.
And when Trump is re-elected, the greenies will just sue taxpayers again to stop any grouse recovery plan that is established under his watch.
And until such time, any land that might somehow sort of be grouse habitat is off limits. Which is exactly what Big Green wanted in the first place.