Endangered and Threatened Wildlife and Plants; Notice of Designation of the Gunnison Sage Grouse as a Candidate Species

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In this document, we present information on the recent addition of the Gunnison sage grouse (Centrocercus minimus) found in Colorado and Utah to the list of candidates for listing under the Endangered Species Act of 1973, as amended. Identification of candidate taxa can assist environmental planning efforts by providing advance notice of potential listings, allowing resource managers to alleviate threats and, thereby, possibly remove the need to list taxa as endangered or threatened. Even if we subsequently list this candidate species, the early notice provided here could result in fewer restrictions on activities by prompting candidate conservation measures to alleviate threats to this species. We also announce the availability of the candidate and listing priority assignment form for this candidate species. This document describes the status and threats that we evaluated to determine that Gunnison sage grouse warrants consideration for listing, and to assign a listing priority to this species. We request additional status information that may be available for the Gunnison sage grouse. We will consider this information in evaluating, monitoring, and developing conservation strateg