The protection of the greater sage grouse prompted a U.S. District judge in Montana on Thursday to overturn a Trump administration move that allowed mining and other development on 10 million acres in parts of six western states.
Judge Lynn Winmill said the Trump decision to cancel a previous effort to ban mining in order to protect the bird failed to consider how it would affect the chicken-sized bird reported the Associated Press.
Similar fights have occurred in Oklahoma, Kansas and New Mexico where in 2019, a lawsuit was filed by three environmental groups to force the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to issue an assessment on the possible re-introduction of federal protections for lesser prairie chickens in parts of Oklahoma, Kansas and three other states.
The lawsuit was filed in the District of Columbia against the administration of President Trump. It sought a court order to force the completion of the review under the Endangered Species Act. The suit contends the review should have been published two years ago and now the Fish and Wildlife Service doesn’t believe it will be ready until 2021.
Click here for the AP story.