Western Watersheds Project and the Center for Biological Diversity filed an appeal in early May to challenge a federal court decision allowing the Bureau of Land Management to clear pinyon-juniper woodland and sagebrush on public lands near the Great Basin National Park in Nevada.
“The BLM actively manages pinyon and juniper to improve rangeland conditions and habitat for sagebrush-dependent species, such as the greater sage-grouse,” BLM said in a summer 2024 management plan. The environmental groups argue the proposed project would “destroy more than 380,000 acres of pinyon-juniper forest in Spring Valley, one of the most scenic and culturally significant landscapes in the Great Basin.”
