(NAFB.com) – The Bureau of Land Management released its updated greater sage grouse management plans, amending 77 separate land use plans across the West. The National Cattlemen’s Beef Association and the Public Lands Council submitted comments on these plans after each phase of the revisions in 2015, 2019, and 2024, advising BLM leadership to leverage livestock grazing as a tool for strengthening sagebrush habitat and preventing wildfires that kill countless birds every year. These amended plans will accomplish these goals and will greatly increase conservation efforts. “The revised sage grouse management plans recognize the role of cattle producers, as the original conservationists, and follow the best available science,” said NCBA President and Nebraska cattleman Buck Wehrbein. “Without ranchers actively managing millions of acres of western rangeland, there would be less habitat and forage, and the grouse populations would be substantially smaller.” A single conservation strategy among all states would have been ineffective.