Instead the department issued a so-called "warranted but precluded" designation for the greater sage grouse, meaning that the bird meets scientific criteria for protection but that other species are a higher priority. Its status will be reviewed annually.
Listing the grouse as endangered or threatened could have frozen oil and gas projects across western states such as Wyoming, and likely would have ended greater sage grouse hunting, permitted by several states.
The designation leaves greater sage grouse management largely in the hands of state officials. . .
"We must find common-sense ways of protecting, restoring and reconnecting the Western lands that are most important to the species' survival," Interior Secretary Ken Salazar said in announcing the decision, "while responsibly developing much-needed energy resources" . . .
