The Trump administration announced plans last week to open millions of acres of land to drilling and mining by removing protections for the sage grouse, an imperiled ground-nesting bird that resides in the American West.
VPR spoke with Pat Parenteau, a professor of environmental law at Vermont Law School, about what that could mean for the bird’s future.
Parenteau said the sage grouse’s habitat — which stretches across 9 million acres over 10 states – is protected because the bird has suffered a "catastrophic decline in its population." He said biologists call the bird an “umbrella species” because it reflects the health of the entire sage brush ecosystem.
While advocates say industrial development won’t impact the sage grouse population, Parenteau said the birds need large swaths of land for heat protection and to breed — and he predicts a rollback in public land protections will be met with plenty of new lawsuits.
Listen to Parenteau's conversation with VPR's Mitch Wertlieb above.
