GREAT FALLS, Mont.— Conservation groups sued the Bureau of Land Management today to challenge its final plans governing greater sage grouse management across 71 million acres of federal public lands in nine Western states. Today’s lawsuit covers the dwindling species’ habitat in Montana, Idaho, Colorado, North Dakota, South Dakota, Nevada, California, Utah and Wyoming. The Trump administration finalized […]
Sage-grouse and the Sagebrush Sea We won a significant victory in our sweeping case challenging thousands of oil and gas leases in sage-grouse habitats. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit held that the first Trump administration illegally approved hundreds of oil and gas leases on public lands in “Phase One” of our […]
Advocates for the West and our conservation partners are challenging an attempt by the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) to sidestep a 2024 court order halting the Converse County Oil & Gas Project in the southern Powder River Basin of Wyoming and unlawfully expedite development of new wells. Powder River Basin Resource Council and Western […]
Conservation groups submitted comments today on the Bureau of Land Management’s proposed changes to the greater sage-grouse management plans, lamenting the potential roll-backs from protections the 2024 plans would have afforded the imperiled bird. The new management schemes would significantly weaken the existing plans, which have already proven inadequate to slow the decline of the […]
A federal judge in Oregon confirmed the Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service’s (APHIS) legal duty to consider preventative measures—rather than a “spray first, ask questions later” approach—in its program allowing insecticide spraying to kill native grasshoppers and crickets on millions of acres in 17 western states. The Court’s rulings also require APHIS to be […]
On July 4, 2025, President Trump signed into law the “One Bill Beautiful Bill Act” (OBBA), ushering in sweeping spending cuts on social services to pay for huge tax cuts for billionaires and investments in border “security.” The bill guts clean energy tax credits, vehicle fuel efficiency standards, environmental protections, and pollution-reduction programs. Its rollbacks […]
The Trump administration has quietly rendered “inactive” a Bureau of Land Management (BLM) policy directive to prioritize environmental monitoring and analysis of livestock grazing on public lands in sensitive habitats. The rescinded policy—Instruction Memorandum 2025-004—directed BLM field offices to complete long overdue National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) reviews on grazing allotments within areas critical to […]
Advocates for the West won a significant victory in our sweeping case challenging thousands of oil and gas leases in sage-grouse habitats. On Friday, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit held that the first Trump administration illegally approved hundreds of oil and gas leases on public lands and prohibited any further development of those […]
Wyoming’s Powder River Basin The massive Converse County Oil and Gas Project in the Powder River basin of eastern Wyoming threatens the survival of sage-grouse and birds of prey and is a major source of greenhouse gas emissions and other harmful air pollutants. We won a significant victory halting the 5,000-well project until the Bureau of […]
Today, the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) released its final Environmental Impact Statement and proposed plan amendments for Greater Sage-Grouse Rangewide Planning, laying out the blueprint of the agency’s intentions for 65 million acres of the bird’s public lands habitat but falling far short of what science says the birds need to avoid extinction. Conservation groups […]