Sage Grouse

Missoula Police are searching for a missing girl they think might have fled to Oregon. Alley Kerr has not been seen in Missoula since May 2.

A Montana panel overseeing a sage grouse conservation plan has finalized guidelines for awarding $10 million in grants to help boost habitat for the imperiled bird.

Two Nevada counties and some mining companies want a court to block new restrictions on mining, energy development and grazing that are meant to protect a declining bird species across millions of acres of the American West.

State officials are breathing a sigh of relief after Secretary of the Interior Sally Jewell said the Greater Sage Grouse did not warrant protection under the Endangered Species Act.

Montana officials breathed a bi-partisan sigh of relief this morning when Interior Secretary Sally Jewell announced that the greater sage-grouse did not warrant a listing under the Endangered Species Act.

Montana Governor Steve Bullock and Wyoming Governor Matt Mead agree that a federal policy drafted by the U.S Bureau of Land Management to protect sage grouse is too restrictive.

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.

U.S. Secretary of the Interior Sally Jewell announced today the completion of a series of final environmental impact statements focusing on sage grouse in the west.

Montana officials believe they've struck on the right formula to control the wolf population in Montana with a combination of both hunting and trapping.

This from the Associated Press....... HELENA, Mont. (AP) — State officials are planning to hire five full-time employees this summer to protect a bird species that's a candidate for the federal endangered species list. Montana plans to spend about $500,000 annually on the salaries for at least five new positions, starting with a program director, who will oversee the management of sage grouse... R