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CHEYENNE, Wyo. (AP) -- An environmental group is challenging Interior Department plans to classify sage grouse as a candidate for protection and not as threatened or endangered.
The department announced Friday that protection is warranted but precluded by higher priorities -- species more in need of protection right now.
Western Watersheds questions that finding in a supplemental complaint filed Monday in U.S. District Court in Boise, Idaho.
Group attorney Laird Lucas says the notion that sage grouse aren't a high priority for protection seems unlikely after the government spent considerable time and money studying whether sage grouse deserve protection.
Western Watersheds sued in 2006 over a previous decision not to list sage grouse.
(Copyright 2010 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)
