US Interior Dept weakens sage-grouse protection to open more oil and mineral development

The Trump administration on Monday rolled back protections for the greater sage-grouse in eight western U.S. states, opening up more federal land for energy and mineral development.

The Bureau of Land Management said proposed changes would make more space available for development than allowed under 2015 plans, while continuing to protect some key habitats for the endangered bird across approximately 65 million acres of sagebrush lands.

The agency said the changes to sage-grouse protections carry out directives from two executive orders issued earlier this year by President Donald Trump that were aimed at unleashing U.S. energy production and energy independence.

"We are strengthening American energy security while ensuring the sage-grouse continues to thrive," said Acting Bureau of Land Management Director Bill Groffy.

Because of precipitous population declines, greater sage-grouse were made eligible for protection under the Endangered Species Act in the early 2010s.

The Trump proposal would remove an annual warning system that aimed to flag declines in populations of the ground-dwelling bird, as well as remove protections from over 4 million acres of sage-grouse habitat in Utah.

The changes also affect Idaho, Montana, North and South Dakota, Nevada, Wyoming and California.

Environmentalists warned that opening more federal land to energy extraction would push the bird species to extinction and harm other species.

"Trump's reckless actions will speed the extinction of greater sage-grouse by allowing unfettered fossil fuel extraction and other destructive development across tens of millions of acres of public lands," said Randi Spivak, public lands policy director at the Center for Biological Diversity.