This week's headlines

The Board of County Commissioners on March 4 ratified a letter asking the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to extend for another 60 days its comment period on a decision to list the Gunnison sage grouse as endangered.

"The proposed endangered listing will significantly impact counties, federal and state agencies, and communities," states the county's letter.

The county's reasoning: "The original decision was scheduled to be released at the end of September 2012. For several reasons, none of which the local counties or communities had any control over, that proposed decision was delayed until January.

"This shortened the normal period of decision-making to less than nine months, which given the gravity of the decision puts an undue burden on impacted counties and communities."

It was last Jan. 11 that the USFWS proposed to protect the Gunnison sage grouse as an endangered species under the Endangered Species Act. The government's proposal also includes designation of 1.7 million acres of critical habitat for the species.

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