Conservation Briefs is a compilation of short news stories of interest to Outdoor News Bulletin readers. The stories will cover a number of issues that have developed in the past month or provide updates on issues that were featured in previous ONB editions. Each story will include links to online resources for more details on each topic. This edition's stories include Secretary Jewell's speech at the National Press Club, FWS endorsement of the lesser prairie-chicken plan, the BLM's latest draft EIS's for sage grouse, and the SPORT Act.

This month:

• DOI Secretary Outlines Conservation at National Press Club
• FWS Endorses WAFWA Plan for Lesser Prairie-Chicken
• BLM Sage Grouse Plans
• Sportsmen's Bills Introduced in Congress

DOI Secretary Outlines Conservation at National Press Club

Secretary of the Interior Sally Jewell spoke to reporters at the National Press Club on October 31, focusing on her priorities for conservation, how to balance development on federal public lands, and how to engage and employ youth in natural resource management. During her remarks, the Secretary issued her first Secretarial Order for a Department-wide mitigation strategy to ensure consistency in the review and permitting of development projects on federal lands. In addition, she called on Congress to support conservation through appropriations for federal land management agencies as well as through mandatory, full funding for the Land and Water Conservation Fund. She also said that if Congress continues to avoid action on the many public lands protection bills in front of it, the President may need to step in and create new national monuments. A video of the Secretary's speech and question and answer session is available on YouTube.

FWS Endorses WAFWA Plan for Lesser Prairie-Chicken

In late October, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service endorsed the range-wide conservation plan for lesser prairie-chickens developed by the Western Association of Fish and Wildlife Agencies. In its statement endorsing the plan, the FWS wrote: "The range-wide plan (RWP) represents a dedicated effort by the five range states of Texas, New Mexico, Oklahoma, Kansas and Colorado to conserve the lesser prairie-chicken. After an extensive review, the Service found the plan is consistent with criteria proposed last May for conserving the species, which is proposed for listing under the ESA? The Service's endorsement is not a decision by the Service that implementing the plan will preclude the need to protect the lesser prairie-chicken under the ESA. The Service will carefully consider the plan, its implementation and effectiveness when it makes a final determination on whether to list the lesser prairie-chicken under the ESA in March, 2014." More information about the lesser prairie-chicken and the steps that have been taken to conserve the species can be found on the FWS Southwest Region's website.

BLM Sage Grouse Plans

The Bureau of Land Management released the latest in its series of proposed conservation management changes to protect the greater sage grouse across the West. On November 1, three draft environmental impact statements covering more than 31 million acres of BLM and Forest Service lands in Idaho (including southwest Montana), Nevada (including parts of California), and Utah were published in the Federal Register for public comment. Similar plans for Colorado and North Dakota were released in August and September respectively. These draft EIS's are among the 15 separate plans being developed across the western states within the "National Greater Sage Grouse Planning Strategy" effort. This national effort will amend many resource management plans in the region to help protect sagebrush habitat along with sage grouse. The BLM states: "Proactively implementing the right policies and conservation measures now will reduce long-term regulatory burdens on stakeholders.  Ideally, the agencies can address the threats posed to the species from the inadequacy of existing regulatory mechanisms through our National Greater Sage-Grouse Planning effort so we can eliminate the need to list the species under the ESA." The comment period for the three new draft EIS's will be open until January 29, 2014 and each region will also hold a series of public meetings that are listed on their planning web page. Comments for the Colorado draft EIS were extended until December 2 and North Dakota's comment period will close on January 13, 2014. More details about planning for greater sage grouse is available on the BLM website.

Sportsmen's Bills Introduced in Congress

On November 6, United States Senator Kay Hagan (D-NC), Democratic Co-Chair of the Congressional Sportsmen's Caucus, introduced a broad package of hunting and fishing related bills. The Sportsmen's and Public Outdoor Recreation Traditions (SPORT) Act brings together 15 separate bills that reauthorize conservation programs, promote sportsmen's access, reverse the sequestration of funds from the Federal Aid in Wildlife and Sportfish Restoration accounts and more. Sen. Hagan's website includes more details about the legislation. Earlier this year, Senator Lisa Murkowski (R-AK) introduced a similar package in the Senate, and House Congressional Sportsmen's Caucus members introduced the SHARE Act in September. All of these sportsmen's packages are meant to recreate a legislative effort that failed at the end of the last Congress. Conservation organizations are optimistic that this year's efforts will be more successful.