U.S. judge: Withdrawal of bistate grouse listing was illegal

By SCOTT SONNER
Associated Press

RENO, Nev. (AP) — A federal judge has ruled the Trump administration illegally withdrew an earlier proposal to list of the the bi-state sage grouse as a threatened species along the California-Nevada line in 2020. It’s the latest development in the on-again, off-again protection of the Sierra cousin of the greater sage grouse under the Endangered Species Act over the past two decades. U.S. District Judge Jacqueline Scott Corley in San Francisco said on Monday the agency erroneously concluded in 2020 that the ground-dwelling bird “is not likely to become an endangered species within the foreseeable future.” Threats to its survival of include urbanization, livestock grazing and wildfires.