Montana Sage Grouse Oversight Team starts work on conservation plan

On Tuesday, the Montana Sage Grouse Oversight Team began their work to protect sage grouse and habitat by deciding which proposed conservation easements would share in the $5 million available for preserving habitat. Those lands will be put in a mitigation bank, which can be used for credits by development projects. Despite a lack of a "habitat quantification tool," which would assign rankings of each conservation project, members decided to forge ahead so landowners could tap into federal matching funds available this month.