Wyoming comment meeting Nov. 18 on Sage-Grouse conservation plan

The Upper Green River Basin Sage-grouse Working Group will hold a public meeting to solicit comment for their Sage-Grouse Conservation Plan Addendum.

The meeting will be held from 2 to 4 p.m. Monday, Nov. 18, at the Wyoming Game and Fish Office in Pinedale (432 East Mill St.). A public comment period has been designated from Nov. 1 through Dec. 2, 2013. Comments will be taken at the public meeting or can be sent to local working group member Dean Clause at dean.clause@wyo.gov, or mailed to Dean Clause at P.O. Box 850, 432 East Mill St., Pinedale, WY 82941.

Interested persons can find the addendum online at: http://wgfd.wyo.gov/web2011/wildlife-1000817.aspx# . The original plan, Upper Green River Basin Sage-Grouse Conservation Plan, can also be found at that website. The Upper Green River Basin Sage-Grouse working group is one of eight local working groups statewide. Each is composed of citizens representing various stakeholder groups interested in sage-grouse conservation and associated land management issues. The group has already developed and initiated a conservation plan to benefit sage-grouse and, when feasible, other species that use sagebrush habitats.

The Wyoming Game and Fish Department has asked each local working group to update their sage-grouse plans to reflect new policies and information that have become available since the plans were originally completed in 2007. Chief among these are the Governor’s Sage-Grouse Executive Order(s), the BLM’s Instructional Memorandum, and the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service’s 2010 threatened and endangered species listing decision in 2010. The Addendum also updates details on sage-grouse conservation practices that the group has prioritized for funding via the legislature’s biennial sage-grouse conservation fund appropriation to each local working group.

–Wyo. Game and Fish Dept.