US cattle grazing plan for Idaho monument draws criticism

Federal officials have released a cattle grazing plan for central Idaho’s Craters of the Moon National Monument and Preserve that immediately came under fire from an environmental group.

The U.S. Bureau of Land Management’s Final Environmental Impact Statement released Friday allows cattle grazing on nearly all of the roughly 275,000 acres it administers in the monument.

Western Watersheds Project says the plan will lead to declines of sage grouse and their possible elimination.

The BLM says the plan protects sage grouse habitat while allowing cattle grazing.

Meanwhile, the Trump administration earlier this month listed all 735,000 acres of federal lands in the monument dating from 1924 as up for possible revocation.

Twenty-six other U.S. monuments on the list only go back to lands designated since 1996.