03/08/10

CHEYENNE, Wyo. (AP) _ An environmental group is challenging
Interior Department plans to classify sage grouse as a candidate
for protection and not as threatened or endangered.

The department announced Friday that protection is warranted but
precluded by higher priorities _ species more in need of protection
right now.

Western Watersheds questions that finding in a supplemental
complaint filed Monday in U.S. District Court in Boise, Idaho.

Group attorney Laird Lucas says the notion that sage grouse
aren't a high priority for protection seems unlikely after the
government spent considerable time and money studying whether sage
grouse deserve protection.

Western Watersheds sued in 2006 over a previous decision not to
list sage grouse.


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