Advocates for the West and our partners announced an agreement with mining company P4 that will result in millions of dollars in payments and other significant measures to benefit the conservation of sage-grouse and other wildlife. Under the agreement, P4—a subsidiary of Bayer AG—agrees to contribute more than $5 million to a trust fund for […]
A federal district court has ruled that the Bureau of Land Management’s (BLM) approval of the 5,000-well Converse County Oil and Gas Project in eastern Wyoming was illegal because the agency’s groundwater modeling contained major errors and grossly underestimated the depletion of groundwater by the massive oil and gas project. Drilling in this area has […]
Advocates for the West and our partners at the Xerces Society for Invertebrate Conservation and the Center for Biological Diversity won a significant victory against the federal Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) over its program allowing pesticide spraying on millions of acres in 17 western states to kill native grasshoppers and crickets. U.S. District […]
The Biden administration released a draft amendment today for 77 land-use plans across the western United States intended to protect the imperiled greater sage-grouse, an umbrella species whose survival is intricately linked to the health of the vast Sagebrush Sea ecosystem. The Bureau of Land Management’s (BLM) preferred alternative falls woefully short of what is needed to […]
The federal Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service’s (APHIS) program allowing pesticide spraying on millions of acres in 17 western states threatens pollinators and other insects, which contribute services valued at more than $70 billion per year to the U.S. economy, according to a recent study. Greater sage-grouse, monarch butterflies, western bumblebees, and other species […]
We’re joined by award-winning author Claire Boyles and Ryan Shannon, Senior Attorney at the Center for Biological Diversity to discuss the current condition of the Gunnison sage-grouse and the bird’s appearance in Claire’s book Site Fidelity, as well as fiction as a means for drawing attention to pressing environmental issues. View the full presentation here.
Advocates for the West filed a lawsuit challenging the federal Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) over its program allowing pesticide spraying on millions of acres in 17 western states. APHIS, a highly secretive agency within the U.S. Department of Agriculture, oversees and funds the application of multiple pesticides on rangelands to prevent native […]
Advocates for the West recently joined birdwatchers and bird conservationists from across the country in advocating for the Bureau of Land Management to adopt large-scale protections for sage-grouse in the agency’s current sage-grouse land use planning process. The May 20 letter to Director Tracy Stone-Manning calls for using Areas of Critical Environmental Concern designations, as […]