BOISE, Idaho -- A federal judge has canceled more than $125 million in oil and gas leases on public lands that are home to the declining bird species greater sage grouse, in a ruling that said President Donald Trump's administration illegally curtailed public comment.
The ruling doesn't stop drilling already underway in areas with sage grouse, but it could help protect the birds from future activity.
U.S. Magistrate Judge Ronald Bush's ruling out of Boise covers leases issued by the federal Bureau of Land Management in 2018 on more than 1,300 square miles in Nevada, Utah and Wyoming,
The case is part of a broader effort challenging the administration's oil and gas leasing practices within the habitat of the ground-dwelling greater sage grouse.
The birds that range across 11 Western states have suffered sharp population declines in recent decades.
Future leases in greater sage-grouse habitat must allow a 30-day public comment and administrative protest period, Bush ordered. The Trump administration had reduced the protest period to just 10 days.
-- The Associated Press