USFWS Extends Gunnison Sage Grouse Comment period by 21 Days

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Some of you have probably already heard this, I’ve held back passing it on until I could find an official press release. Please use this time to get more people to comment on this important issue!

On January 11, 2013, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (Service) published in the Federal Register a proposed rule to list the Gunnison sage-grouse as endangered, and a proposed rule to designate approximately 1.7 million acres of critical habitat for Gunnison sage-grouse under the Endangered Species Act of 1973, as amended.  Each proposed rule has a 60-day comment period, ending March 12, 2013.  We received several requests from the public to extend the comment period for these proposals.  To ensure the public has an adequate opportunity to review and comment on these proposed rules, we are extending the comment period an additional 21 days.

Details on the kinds of information the Service is seeking are available in the proposed rules.  You may obtain copies of the proposed rules on the Internet at http://www.regulations.gov at Docket No. FWS-R6-ES-2012-0108 for the proposed endangered status for Gunnison sage-grouse; or Docket No. FWS-R6-ES-2011-0111 for the proposed designation of critical habitat for Gunnison sage-grouse.  Copies of the proposed rules are also available at http://www.fws.gov/mountain-prairie/species/birds/gunnisonsagegrouse/.

The press release is HERE

Instructions on how to comment are contained in the press release.