A coalition of environmental groups this week asked Bureau of Land Management Director Tracy Stone-Manning to stop her agency from granting exceptions to protective stipulations for greater sage grouse in Wyoming.

The groups, led by Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility and the Western Watersheds Project, claimed that information they obtained from BLM through the Freedom of Information Act indicate that the bureau has granted 90 percent of the 127 requests for exemptions to timing restrictions and other measures over the past four years in the state of Wyoming, which is home to nearly half the remaining grouse population.