16. Department of the Interior · Notable
Cede greater sage-grouse jurisdiction to western states
Printed page 534 16. Department of the Interior
“Cede to western states jurisdiction over the greater sage-grouse, recognizing the on-the-ground expertise of states and preventing use of the sage-grouse to interfere with public access to public land and economic activity.”
What has happened
- Not started
No jurisdiction over the greater sage-grouse has been ceded to the western states. SO 3418 §4(c) directed BLM to review and as appropriate revise the November 2024 Greater Sage-Grouse Rangewide Planning amendment; BLM took comment on changes to it on 2025-09-03 and said it "will issue Records of Decision for the Approved RMPAs for Idaho, Montana/Dakotas, Nevada/California, Utah, and Wyoming" — federal plans, federally approved. The Forest Service withdrew its Dakota Prairie Grasslands sage-grouse amendment on 2025-03-21. Neither transfers management. BLM's FY2027 justification still funds a Sage-Grouse Management program, and no memorandum, order or rule delegating the species to the states was found.
Research log
What was searched, and what didn’t count as evidence
Research notes
The greater sage-grouse is not listed, so what is at stake is the BLM planning overlay rather than an ESA transfer. The rangewide plan amendment is still BLM’s.
Checked against the full 2026 Unified Agenda on reginfo.gov (Interior, agencyCd 1000, active stages, read 2026-09-01; agenda published in the Federal Register 2026-08-14). No BLM or Fish and Wildlife Service entry names the greater sage-grouse, which is consistent with the rangewide amendment being a land-use plan rather than a rulemaking. The negative now reaches Interior’s stated intentions as well as its published rules.
- Action
- transfer
- Object
- Federal jurisdiction over the greater sage-grouse
- ID
- 1506