FILE - In this April 15, 2008 file photo, a male sage grouse performs his "strut" near Rawlins, Wyo. The governors of Wyoming and Montana say a federal plan to protect the greater sage grouse is far more restrictive than Western states' own programs to help the struggling species. Wyoming Gov. Matt Mead and Montana Gov. Steve Bullock told the U.S. Bureau of Land Management this week to rewrite major portions of a draft federal policy for protecting the ground-dwelling bird. The governors submitted comments to the agencys state directors in separate letters, both dated July 29, 2015, outlining their positions on the draft that was released May 28.(Jerret Rafferty/Rawlins Daily Times via AP, File)
RENO, Nev. — State and federal land managers working to keep the greater sage grouse off the list of endangered species have secured a $2 million grant from the Pentagon to help finance habitat restoration beneath thousands of square miles of U.S. Navy training airspace in Nevada.
The money recently was approved by the Defense Department's Military Services' Readiness and Environmental Protection Integration Program, officials for the Nevada Department of Wildlife and U.S. Department of Agriculture's Natural Resources Conservation Service told The Associated Press on Wednesday.
"This unique partnership between the military and environmental partners is the first of its kind in Nevada," Gov. Brian Sandoval said in a statement prepared for Thursday's formal announcement.
The grant will leverage an additional $2 million in matching funds to help restore more than 11,000 acres of prime sage grouse habitat — a total of about 7 square miles — under airspace controlled by the Fallon Naval Air Station headquartered about 60 miles east of Reno.
The DOD program also recently approved $2 million to help protect 7,000 acres of gopher tortoise habitat surrounding Fort Benning in Georgia and $2 million to protect 10,000 acres of forest in Maine affiliated with the Portsmouth Naval Shipyard's survival school.
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