Not a new strategy

Departing administrations often take last-minute actions. President Clinton, for example, issued an executive order banning new roads on 60 million acres of public lands.

The Clinton administration also issued its own national forest management rules — adding protections for species. They were never enacted by the Bush administration.

Still, expressing his concern about last-minute rules and changes, Colorado Democratic Sen. Ken Salazar said, "We should not let political timelines overrun sensible and sound policy."

In a May memo, Josh Bolten, Bush's chief of staff, told federal agencies to refrain from issuing any new regulations after June 1.

Some of the Western initiatives, however, predate the memo or are policies, not rules.

"The NEPA handbook is not a federal regulation. It doesn't have to have a public review," said BLM spokesman Matt Spangler, "though we are inviting the public to comment."

The handbook was issued April 24 before the public could comment.

The manual for handling threatened and endangered species is a policy document that has not been released to the public.

A draft copy obtained by the Denver-based Center for Native Ecosystems shows there are about 33 species designated as sensitive by the Colorado Division of Wildlife that would lose protection on BLM lands.

Among those species are the river otter, the Western burrowing owl and the yellow mud turtle.

Another major decision that is likely to be made before Bush leaves office is whether the greater sage grouse should be listed as an endangered species.

A decision by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to list the bird — whose range stretches 258,000 square miles from Idaho through Montana, Utah, New Mexico, Colorado to Wyoming — could have far-reaching impacts.

"Every land use in the West will be on the table," said Todd Tucci, a lawyer with Advocates of the West, one of the groups that sued the service to reconsider placing the bird on the endangered-species list.

Under a court-approved agreement, a final determination would be made by a new and possibly more sympathetic administration in May 2009.

The Fish and Wildlife Service intends to issue its decision in December anyway.

"The service decided to move it up to comply with the Endangered Species Act," said Diane Katzenberger, an agency spokeswoman. "We still go back to the judge with updates. So a final decision could still be set by the court."

Another court fight between the Bush administration and environmental groups appears to be set over Forest Service management rules.

The service first issued the rules — which took steps to broaden and ease the areas where logging could be done — in 2005.

Among the management goals in the previous rules, adopted in 1982, was to preserve viable animal populations on forest land and to monitor key species.

"That language is completely gone from these rules," said Orr, of Earthjustice.