CASPER — Gov. Dave Freudenthal on Wednesday issued an executive order revising Wyoming’s sage grouse Core Population Area policy, first implemented by executive order in 2008 to help avoid a listing of the greater sage grouse under the Endangered Species Act.

The changes resulted in a net increase of total core areas protected of an estimated 400,000 acres, Freudenthal said. “There was acreage deleted and there was acreage added. I think that it is a net plus in terms of the acreage that is now protected in the core area,” Freudenthal said Wednesday during a media conference.

Earlier this year, the U.S. Department of Interior determined that the sage grouse qualified for protection under the Endangered Species Act — including its range in Wyoming — but precluded listing the bird because of higher-priority listing commitments.

Wyoming’s core areas policy requires that developers of new activities must first demonstrate how sage grouse populations will not be diminished.

Regarding wind,  the Governor said that while exceptions will be considered under the policy for virtually all types of activities, there are no exceptions to the restriction of new wind energy development. Freudenthal noted that the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, on two occasions, indicated that wind energy development is “incompatible” with core area protection. However, that will not prevent the state from revisiting the issue, particularly once new information is available from a coordinated effort to measure wind energy’s impact on sage grouse outside the core areas.

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