The following release is from the Office of Governor Matt Mead.
CHEYENNE, Wyo. – Days after the US Fish and Wildlife Service agreed that Governor Mead’s Executive Order will protect sage-grouse habitat the USDA announced it is sending $10.4 million to Wyoming for conserving critical sage-grouse habitat on private land. This is on top of $17 million the state received from USDA’s Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) program earlier this year.
Governor Matt Mead said, “I am pleased that the federal government is backing up its words of support for our sage-grouse plan. Our plan is an effort to keep sage-grouse off the endangered species list. Because private property owners often bear the costs of species protection it is good to see funds provided to offset some of the costs associated with protecting a species.”
The chair of the Sage-Grouse Implementation Team, Bob Budd, said this is a voluntary program and that it targets the right areas. “The funding specifically would go to deal with fragmentation,” Budd said. “The US Fish and Wildlife Service identified fragmentation as the number-one threat to sage-grouse habitat in the west.”
Source: Office of Governor Matt Mead
Posted by Haylie Shipp
