Mule Deer Foundation Applauds Sage Grouse Decision

By Justin Stakes

Salt Lake City, UT -(AmmoLand.com)- The Mule Deer Foundation (MDF) applauded today’s announcement by the Department of the Interior that the greater sage-grouse is not warranted for listing under the Endangered Species Act.

That decision, announced at a press event today at the Rocky Mountain Arsenal National Wildlife Refuge, validates the years of hard work and collaborative conservation efforts by private landowners, non-profit organizations and federal and state agencies.

“We greatly appreciate this Administration’s decision that the greater sage-grouse will not be added to the endangered species list,” said Art Reese, a retired administrator of the Wyoming Game and Fish Department and a member of the MDF board of directors. “The public/private conservation efforts to restore our sagebrush ecosystems across the West have been unprecedented and it is reassuring to know that those efforts were recognized and will continue to benefit all sagebrush dependent species.”

MDF has identified mule deer “conservation opportunity areas” where state biologists have identified the most immediate and pressing needs for mule deer conservation – nearly 17 million of those acres overlap with sage grouse priority areas of conservation. Because of these significant …read more

Source:: AmmoLand