A sage grouse habitat protection lawsuit challenges a December rollback
A sage grouse habitat protection lawsuit now challenges the Bureau of Land Management, the federal agency that manages public land, over rules called resource management plans that decide how that land can be used. The agency finalized new plans on 22 December 2025, replacing protections for the greater sage grouse it adopted in 2015. The Center for Biological Diversity and 5 co plaintiff groups, Western Watersheds Project, Sierra Club, WildEarth Guardians, Gallatin Wildlife Association and Rocky Mountain Wild, filed suit on 2 March 2026 in United States District Court in Montana, in Great Falls. It covers 71 million acres of public land across 9 western states, Montana, Idaho, Colorado, North Dakota, South Dakota, Nevada, California, Utah and Wyoming. The greater sage grouse is a ground dwelling bird known for a springtime mating display on open ground called a lek, and the lawsuit says its population fell nearly 80% between 1968 and 2023, down to about 1.3% of the roughly 16 million birds that once ranged across 297 million acres of sagebrush habitat. A separate United States Geological Survey study found most breeding sites have a 50% chance of disappearing within roughly the next 6 decades if conditions do not change, a finding the lawsuit says the agency ignored when it wrote the new plans.
Randi Spivak, public lands policy director at the Center for Biological Diversity, source 1, said what she thinks the new plans mean for the species.
The Trump administration's destructive, illegal plans could nail the coffin shut on our country's incredible dancing birds unless the courts intervene.
Randi Spivak, public lands policy director, Center for Biological Diversity. Source 1.
The lawsuit states the population decline as nearly 80%, not an exact figure. The historic count refers to sage grouse across their full historic range, not the 1968 count used for the decline figure.
Show the numbers
| National population decline, 1968 to 2023 | 80 |
| Current population as share of historic count | 1.3 |
| Chance a breeding site disappears in 6 decades | 50 |
A second lawsuit narrows in on how close drilling can get to a lek
A second, related lawsuit filed 26 March 2026 by Montana Wildlife Federation, The Wilderness Society and Defenders of Wildlife, represented by Earthjustice, narrows in on 1 specific mechanism, how close oil and gas drilling can get to a lek. Scientists recommend keeping development 3 to 5 miles back from a lek so the noise and activity do not disrupt breeding. The new plans allow development as close as 0.6 miles in Montana and Wyoming, the 2 states that together hold over half of all the sage grouse left in the world. Sage grouse have already disappeared entirely from 1 state, North Dakota, as of 2025, which happens to be the home state of Doug Burgum, the Interior Secretary who oversees the Bureau of Land Management and is named personally as the defendant in the second lawsuit.
Earthjustice states the recommended distance as a range from 1 source, not as 2 disagreeing figures, so both ends are drawn from the same source.
Show the numbers
| Recommended by scientists | 3 to 5 miles |
| Allowed in Montana and Wyoming | 0.6 miles or less |
Ben Tettlebaum, acting senior legal director at The Wilderness Society, source 2, said why his group is suing.
We're taking the Trump administration to court for its latest gambit to bulldoze over the iconic greater sage grouse.
Ben Tettlebaum, acting senior legal director, The Wilderness Society. Source 2.
The Bureau of Land Management calls the same plan protection, not a rollback
The Bureau of Land Management describes the same December decision differently, saying in its own press release that the updated plans protect approximately 65 million acres while expanding energy access, under Executive Order 14154, an order titled Unleashing American Energy that directs agencies to expand domestic oil and gas production. Bill Groffy, the acting director of the agency, source 3, said what he believes the plans achieve.
We are strengthening American energy security while ensuring the sage grouse continues to thrive.
Bill Groffy, acting director, Bureau of Land Management. Source 3.
Both lawsuits are pending in the same federal court in Great Falls, Montana, and neither had been decided as of the sources read for this article. A separate government estimate says the sagebrush habitat these plans govern sustains more than 350 wildlife species beyond the sage grouse itself.