Environmental groups are suing the Interior Department, claiming it has abandoned critical protections for the declining greater sage grouse.
The Montana Wildlife Federation, Defenders of Wildlife and The Wilderness Society filed suit Thursday in the U.S. District Court for the District of Montana, challenging management plans from Interior’s Bureau of Land Management for two states.
Wyoming and Montana are home to over half the remaining sage grouse population, and the lawsuit argues that BLM failed to consider the best available science when it revised land management plans in December 2025.
The agency in 2015 adopted plans to establish rangewide protections for the species across public lands in 10 Western states. But BLM finalized new plans in December 2025, easing restrictions on federal land for protecting the bird, whose survival frequently conflicts with livestock grazing, fossil fuel drilling and other development.
