Judge: Trump administration illegally withdrew bird listing

By SCOTT SONNER
Associated Press

RENO, Nev. (AP) — A federal judge has ruled the Trump administration acted illegally in 2020 when it withdrew an earlier proposal to list as threatened a hen-sized bird found only in the high desert along the California-Nevada line. It’s the latest development in the on-again, off-again protection of the bi-state sage grouse under the Endangered Species Act over the past two decades. U.S. District Judge Jacqueline Scott Corley in San Francisco said 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.