Sen. Cynthia Lummis (R-Wyo.), Senate Western Caucus chair, and Congressional Western Caucus Chairman Dan Newhouse (R-Wash.), delivered a letter to Bureau of Land Management Director Tracy Stone-Manning on Friday requesting a comment period extension on the agency’s Greater Sage-Grouse Rangewide Planning Draft Resource Management Plan Amendment and Draft Environmental Impact Statement, which was released last week.

The letter claims the plan would be disastrous for the West as it would impact tens of millions of acres of land across 10 Western states, including Wyoming.

“The BLM’s proposals will have wide-reaching impacts on farmers, ranchers and land owners across the West whose livelihoods depend on responsible management of our federal lands,” Lummis said. “Our stakeholders deserve adequate time to voice their concerns and suggest commonsense changes to D.C. bureaucrats’ policies, which is why we are requesting at least a 180-day extension to ensure their voices are heard.” 

Lummis aide Stacey Daniels said the senator prefers changes to regulations by former Department of Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke. He updated the Obama-era plans to give states more flexibility in how to manage sage grouse populations in their borders.

“Sen. Lummis doesn’t see a need for this to be updated,” Daniels said.

The draft Environmental Impact Statement includes six alternatives ranging from no-action (alternative 2) to extremely restrictive measures (alternative 3) that would close large swaths of federal land to any activity other than sage grouse habitat conservation.

“There is a distinct possibility the BLM will choose an alternative that harms Wyoming’s economy by reducing energy production and livestock grazing on public land for the ‘benefit’ of sage grouse,” Daniels said. “There is so much information to review which is why Sen. Lummis’ letter calls for a comment period extension to ensure local stakeholders have enough time to understand the alternatives before commenting.”

Lummis said Wyoming has a history of successful sage grouse management and there is no need for more federal involvement.

The caucuses represent 130 members of both the House and Senate. In the letter, the two chairpersons said a 180-day extension for review was commensurate with the scope of the proposal.

“The Draft RMPA/EIS is considering amendments to 77 different BLM resource management plans (RMPs), which will impact millions of acres across 10 different Western states. Along with these potential amendments, your agency could potentially designate millions of acres as new Areas of Critical Environmental Concern (ACECs). Coupled together, these proposals will have drastic effects on grazing permittees, resource developers, timber harvesters, and recreators whose livelihoods depend on responsible management of our federal lands,” the letter reads.

The BLM contends the alternatives in the proposal build on the most successful components of the plans that the BLM adopted in 2015 and updated in 2019. The draft plan incorporates new sage grouse conservation science and lessons learned, accommodating changing resources conditions while increasing implementation flexibility.