Governor Bullock Signs “Memorandum of Understanding” on Sage Grouse Habitat

Today, July 20, the Natural Resources Conservation Service announced that it had spent over $425 million on the Sage Grouse Initiative, an initiative that began five years ago in Montana. The same day, Governor Steve Bullock signed a "Memorandum of Understanding" to strengthen the state’s efforts to preserve sage grouse habitat.

"It's a three party agreement to work on sage grouse conservation in Montana between the Natural Resource Conservation Service, a USDA department, the State of Montana, and our 58 conservation districts in Montana, at least those that have sage grouse habitat," said Department of Natural Resources and Conservation Director John Tubbs.

Tubbs says this agreement will allow Montana to tap into federal funds for its sage grouse efforts.

"[Montana] passed sage grouse legislation this past session, providing $10 million in conservation authority for Montana State agencies," Tubbs said. "We can now leverage that with the federal government into at least two times that, if not more than that in terms of our ability to work with private land conservation."

In most western states, Sage grouse habitat is on federal land, but nearly 70 percent of the sage grouse habitat in Montana is on private land, a fact that has required Montana to develop a unique approach to the issue after the bird became a “candidate” for listing under the Endangered Species Act.