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KUNC is among the founding partners of the Mountain West News Bureau, a collaboration of public media stations that serve the Western states of Colorado, Idaho, Nevada, New Mexico, Utah and Wyoming.

Veterans Are Getting Riled Up About Sage Grouse. Here's Why.

Greater sage-grouse on Seedskadee National Wildlife Refuge in Wyoming
TOM KOERNER / USFWS / CREATIVE COMMONS
Greater sage-grouse on Seedskadee National Wildlife Refuge in Wyoming

Hundreds of veterans are calling on Congress to scrap a seemingly unrelated attachment to this year’s defense spending bill.

Around 500 signatures on a letter from the Vet Voice Foundation are calling for a clean National Defense Authorization Act.  Right now it includes an attachment that mandates sage grouse be kept off the endangered species list for at least 10 years.

Colorado Vet Garett Reppenhagen wrote the letter calling for a clean bill.  He says veterans don’t want the bill tied up in a controversial debate over wildlife conservation.

“Having served our country and put a lot of skin in the game to make sure this country is safe,” said Reppenhagen, “we don’t want to see the thing we rely on to fund the troops to be spoiled.”

The attachment was introduced by U.S. Rep. Rob Bishop, R-Utah, who argues that protecting sage grouse habitat hinders military operations.  

Reppenhagen disagrees.

“It’s sometimes packaged as a readiness issue for the military,” he said, “because some of the habitat of the sage grouse does cross over into military installations.”

But Reppenhagen says he’s heard from the U.S. Army, the U.S. Air Force and the Pentagon confirming that military operations are not disrupted by ongoing habitat protections.  

The House is hoping to vote on the bill before August.

This story was produced by the Mountain West News Bureau, a collaboration between Wyoming Public Media, Boise State Public Radio in Idaho, Yellowstone Public Radio in Montana, KUER in Salt Lake City and KRCC and KUNC in Colorado.

Copyright 2020 91.5 KRCC. To see more, visit .

Ali Budner is KRCC's reporter for the Mountain West News Bureau, a journalism collaborative that unites six stations across the Mountain West, including stations in Colorado, Idaho, Wyoming, Utah, and Montana to better serve the people of the region. The project focuses its reporting on topic areas including issues of land and water, growth, politics, and Western culture and heritage.
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