On December 9, 2011, a Notice of Intent was published in the Federal Register to initiate the BLM and USFS GRSG Planning Strategy across nine western states, including California, Oregon, Nevada, Idaho, Utah, and Southwest Montana in the Great Basin Region and Northwest Colorado, Wyoming, Montana, South Dakota, and North Dakota in the Rocky Mountain Region. This Northwest Colorado GRSG LUPA/EIS is 1 of 15 separate EISs that are currently being conducted to analyze and incorporate specific conservation measures across the range of the GRSG, consistent with National BLM and USFS policy.

On December 27, 2011, the BLM Washington Office released Instruction Memorandum 2012-044, BLM National Greater Sage-Grouse Land Use Planning Strategy (BLM 2012a) (Appendix A), which directed all of the planning efforts across the GRSG range to consider all applicable conservation measures when revising or amending its LUPs in GRSG habitat, including the measures developed by the NTT that were presented in their December 2011 document, A Report on National Greater Sage-Grouse Conservation Measures (NTT 2011). Instruction Memorandum 2012-044 directs all planning efforts associated with the national strategy to consider and analyze (as appropriate) the conservation measures presented in the report.

Along with the applicable measures that were outlined in the NTT report (NTT 2011), planning efforts associated with this National GRSG Planning Strategy will also analyze applicable conservation measures that were submitted to the BLM and USFS from various state governments and from citizens during the public scoping process. It is the goal of the BLM and USFS to make a final decision on these plans by the end of 2014, so that adequate regulatory mechanisms are incorporated in place before USFWS makes a listing decision in 2015.