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WVPE is your gateway to green and sustainable resources in Michiana. Sustainability is meeting the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs. This is accomplished by finding a balance between businesses, the environment, and our society (people, planet, and profit).State, National and International resources on sustainability include:The Environmental Protection AgencyThe Natural StepSustainability Dictionary45 Sustainability Resources You Need to Know Explore ways to support sustainability in the Michiana area through the Green Links Directory.Sept. 17, 2019 from 2-3:30pm"Global Warming: A Hot Topic"Sept. 17, 19, 24, and 26All sessions are from 2-3:30pmGreencroft Goshen Community Center in the Jennings Auditorium1820 Greencroft Blvd.Goshen, IN 46526The event will look at possible solutions and suffering as well as consequences beyond warmer weather. The event will examine what other civilizations have or haven’t done when faced with environmental problems. Plus there will be an exploration of the biggest unknown in the climate system: What will the humans do? Paul Meyer Reimer teaches physics, math and climate change at Goshen College. The events are presented by the Lifelong Learning Institute. The Institute can be reached at: (574) 536-8244lifelonglearning@live.comhttp://life-learn.org/

Administration Announces Controversial Plan To Protect Sage Grouse

DAVID GREENE, HOST:

And now to the latest news on one funky-looking bird. The greater sage grouse is smack at the center of a debate pitting environmentalists against minors, ranchers and the energy industry. The bird nests in grasslands across the American West and the Obama administration has announced a plan to protect its habitat by limiting energy development. It is possibly the largest land conservation effort in U.S. history. Here's NPR's Nathan Rott.

NATHAN ROTT, BYLINE: Let's get you familiar with the greater sage grouse real quick by going to a field in Utah, about an hour's drive from Salt Lake City, where a couple-dozen male sage grouse about the size of chickens are strutting their spiky tail feathers, puffing and popping. While a nearby songbird sings, this is a breeding ground, a lek in sage grouse vernacular. And under the new plan announced by the Department of the Interior, this lek, like others on federal lands from Colorado to Washington state, will be given a surrounding buffer zone, where things that disturb these finicky birds would be prohibited or limited, a point that's controversial. Much of the prime habitat for the bird is also prime real estate for energy - oil and gas, wind and solar. And under the new rule, more than 40 million acres are potentially off-limits to development.

KATHLEEN SGAMMA: That is an awful lot of land.

ROTT: Kathleen Sgamma is with Western Energy Alliance, which represents energy and gas companies. She says that sage grouse and energy development are compatible given proper planning.

SGAMMA: But here comes a federal plan, which is just, you know, blanket puts areas off-limits.

ROTT: Sgamma says it will cost states thousands of jobs and billions of dollars in lost revenue. And that the states, not the feds, should have final say, a sentiment that's shared by some Western politicians. Jim Lyons, the Department of the Interior's deputy assistant secretary, disagrees. He says there's a way it can all coexist and points to Wyoming as an example.

JIM LYONS: They've demonstrated the ability to protect important areas and continue with the oil and gas development that is so critical to their economy. So I think the evidence is there at a state level it can be done.

ROTT: And he says it's not just about the sage grouse. It's about the mule deer, the pronghorns, the golden eagles and 350-plus other species that call the American West's vast sagebrush country home. Nathan Rott, NPR News. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.

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Nathan Rott is a correspondent on NPR's National Desk, where he focuses on environment issues and the American West.