Judge orders BLM to fix sage-grouse analysis in Montana grazing permit assessment

Courthouse News reports that Chief U.S. District Judge Brian Morris ruled on a Friday that the Bureau of Land Management must address shortcomings in its 2024 environmental assessment of renewed grazing permits in Montana's Grasshopper Watershed. Morris granted in part and denied in part cross motions for summary judgment from three conservation groups and the government. He wrote that the defendants "seemingly did know, or at least knew better than disclosed," the status and trend of sage-grouse populations, and found BLM's exclusion of forb height data without explanation was arbitrary and capricious. He did not vacate the assessment and rejected several of the groups' other arguments. Representatives of the Justice Department, which represents BLM, did not immediately respond to a request for comment, Courthouse News reported.