"The Interior Department is scrambling to meet a September 2015 deadline to avert an Endangered Species Act listing for the greater sage grouse -- what some Westerners warn would be a political and economic disaster.

The charismatic, ground-dwelling bird once occupied nearly 300 million acres of sagebrush grasslands, but its habitat has been plowed, fragmented and burned to roughly half its original expanse.

Leading Interior's grouse rescue are three officials with experience in wildlife crises: Jim Lyons, Sarah Greenberger and Michael Bean.

Interior Secretary Sally Jewell has tasked the three to work all angles -- political, bureaucratic and legal -- to save the grouse. It's a wildlife challenge without parallel in U.S. history."

Phil Taylor reports for Greenwire November 24, 2014. [2]