DENVER, CO. – The Bureau of Land Management has updated the record of public comments on federal sage-grouse conservation plans by adding the National Wildlife Federation’s 37,332 comments that were missing from a March 5 report. The comments were among tens of thousands of submissions from the public still largely unaccounted for.

Tracy Stone-Manning, the National Wildlife Federation’s associate vice president for public lands, said today:

“We’re pleased the Bureau of Land Management responded to our request and took one step toward correcting the public record by allowing National Wildlife Federation supporters and members to be heard, but we remain deeply concerned that the agency doesn’t know what went wrong, whether other comments are still missing or how to prevent this squelching of voices in the future.

 “Ultimately, we question whether the federal government is even listening to the overwhelming support for the collaborative effort to save greater sage-grouse, because its report doesn’t reflect the substantive concerns in a majority of the comments and the agency is pushing  ahead to undermine the plans that Westerners forged in good faith. The overwhelming message from the public is clear: We want the Department of Interior to honor the deal it made to save the bird and Western sagebrush lands.”

Click here to view a TV ad the National Wildlife Federation ran in Western markets in March asking the BLM to honor the sage-grouse deal.