Summit County Citizens Voice

Greater sage grouse. PHOTO COURTESY U.S. FOREST SERVICE.

Open house meetings set to take input in early stages of environmental study

By Summit Voice

SUMMIT COUNTY — As part of a larger regional effort, The Bureau of Land Management’s Northwest Colorado District will begin a district-wide greater sage-grouse planning effort with four open house meetings to hear from the public.

More than 1.8 million acres of Colorado’s greater sage-grouse habitat is on BLM lands in the Northwest District — almost half of the entire greater sage-grouse habitat in the state.

To incorporate new national sage grouse conservation measures in the region, the BLM will do an in-depth environmental impact statement for the five field offices within the District: the Colorado River Valley Field Office in Silt, the Grand Junction Field Office, the Kremmling Field Office, the Little Snake Field Office in Craig and the White River Field Office in Meeker.

“We are working to proactively address sage-grouse conservation through science-based measures to maintain and restore flourishing populations of greater sage-grouse and sagebrush habitat,” said BLM Colorado Northwest district manager Jim Cagney, “We want to do this in a way that protects the health of our land while also facilitating safe and responsible energy development and recreational opportunities, which are so important to our economy in northwestern Colorado.”

Four public open house meetings will be held from 4 p.m. to 7 p.m. at the following locations:

• Jan. 31 in Walden at the Wattenberg Center, 682 County Road 42
• Feb. 1 in Lakewood at the Sheraton Denver West, 360 Union Boulevard
• Feb. 2 in Silt at the BLM Field Office, 2300 River Frontage Road
• Feb. 7 in Craig at the BLM Field Office, 455 Emerson Street

“Before we begin writing the Environmental Impact Statement, we want to hear any issues or concerns from the public and our partners,” Cagney said. “The open house meetings will provide an excellent venue to let people know about this process, and how their involvement can be most effective.”

In December, Interior Secretary Ken Salazar announced new greater sage-grouse conservation guidance aimed at conserving the greater sage-grouse and its sagebrush habitat in 10 western states. This included new long-term conservation measures found in the BLM National Greater Sage-Grouse Land Use Planning Strategy.

The BLM will accept these preliminary public scoping comments through Feb. 22, 2012. Written comments will be accepted at the open house meetings, or they can be sent via regular mail to Erin Dreyfuss, NW CO District NEPA Coordinator at 2815 H Road, Grand Junction, CO  81506, via email to gjfo_webmail@blm.gov, or via fax to (970) 244-3062.  Please be sure to reference the CO Sage-Grouse EIS in the subject line of your fax or email.

Before including your address, phone number, e-mail address, or other personal identifying information in your comment, you should be aware that your entire comment—including your personal identifying information—may be made publicly available at any time.  While you can ask us in your comment to withhold your personal identifying information from public review, we cannot guarantee that we will be able to do so.

Filed under: biodiversity, BLM, Colorado, endangered species, Environment, public lands, Summit County news Tagged: | BLM, Bureau of Land management, Colorado, Environment, sage grouse