The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service released a report that’s meant to help states figure out how to protect sage grouse and keep them off the endangered species list. 

Bob Budd with the Wyoming Wildlife Natural Resource Trust helped put the report together. He says the document provides information about the key threats to sage grouse, but leaves it up to states to develop or revise their conservation plans.

“It doesn’t recommend what people need to do,” Budd said. “It simply says, ‘Hey, here are the threats that we need to be looking at,’ and in doing that, allows the latitude to the states to determine what’s going to work best within each of the individual states.”

Budd says this report will provide a framework for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service  to evaluate states’ efforts regarding sage grouse conservation, and that will help them figure out if the bird should be listed.  The agency plans to make a decision by 2015.