On March 2, the BLM released a scoping report on comments received to its proposed amendments to land-use plans related to the greater sage-grouse. The public comment period began on Oct. 11, 2017 and closed Dec. 1, 2017, though the scoping report notes that it considered comments sent via the mail until Dec. 6, 2017 to allow for delays in mail delivery. Within the scoping report, the BLM identified “1,040 unique written submissions” which included “4,666 substantive comments.” The report noted that the over 80,000 form letter submissions were counted only as the 17 different form letters, and the almost 100,000 signatures placed on petitions were only counted as the five different petitions. These form letters and petitions “expressed a desire to leave greater sage-grouse plans in place without amendment” or to increase protection efforts. The Western Values Project however has claimed that over 100,000 public comments have “gone missing” and is demanding an audit of the scoping report. — WLJ
[Editor’s Note, Mar. 14, 2018, 12:25pm: An earlier version of this article incorrectly identified the Western Watersheds Project as the group calling for the audit]
