On September 17, 2026, Wyoming Governor Mark Gordon signed Executive Order 2026-07, Greater Sage-Grouse Core Area Protection, at an event in Saratoga. The order replaces Executive Order 2019-3 and took effect immediately. It continues Wyoming’s Core Area Protection Strategy, which has operated since 2008 as the state’s primary regulatory mechanism for conserving the greater sage-grouse and preserving state management authority over the species. For air permitting, it affects what you disclose in the application as well as where and when you can build.
Key Changes from EO 2019-3
The Core Area map grew modestly. Appendix B places Core Population Areas, Connectivity Areas, and Winter Concentration Areas at approximately 15.8 million acres, about 25 percent of the state, up from approximately 15.2 million acres (24 percent) under the previous EO 2019-3, an increase of roughly 600,000 acres. The State reports that the new mapping captures approximately 90 percent of Wyoming’s greater sage-grouse population, up from approximately 83 percent under the prior order. The order also updates its federal land management reference to the 2025 BLM Approved Resource Management Plan Amendments.
New Stewardship Area designation
EO 2026-07 also creates Stewardship Areas as a fourth delineated habitat category. Appendix E describes these as fragmented but essential habitat, often on private or mixed-ownership land, that links Core Population Areas. Management in Stewardship Areas follows the same stipulations as Non-Core Population Areas, and the Density Disturbance Calculation Tool (DDCT) process is not used there. That means a 0.25-mile no surface occupancy buffer around occupied leks, no disturbance cap outside that buffer, and activity within two miles of an occupied lek limited to July 1 through March 14.
Additional valid existing rights date
The order adds September 17, 2026 as a third vesting date for valid existing rights, following August 1, 2008 and July 29, 2015. The signed order states that activities existing or permitted before that date within Core Population Areas added by EO 2026-07 won’t be held to Core Population Area density and disturbance thresholds. For oil and gas, Appendix D confirms that activity governed by WOGCC spacing orders or units established before the applicable vesting date is exempt from Core stipulations except no surface occupancy. Operators in other sectors relying on vested status should confirm the scope of the exemption with the Wyoming Game and Fish Department (WGFD).
Restructured appendices and revised mitigation pathway
The appendices drop from nine (A through I) to seven (A through G), and compensatory mitigation no longer has its own appendix. Instead, mitigation goes through Wyo. Stat. § 9-19-101 through 9-19-204 and the State Board of Land Commissioners Chapter 29 rules, with the Office of State Lands and Investments certifying credit sales and the Compensatory Mitigation Oversight Group providing oversight. WGFD lists implementation materials for the new pathway as forthcoming.
Adaptive management substantially rewritten
The soft and hard trigger framework of EO 2019-3 (including the 60 percent and 40 percent numeric thresholds and the 90-day and 180-day response deadlines) is gone, replaced by a process for “departures from typical trends.” The Adaptive Management Working Group meets annually by October 1 and may continue monitoring, issue recommendations, or issue emergency recommendations.
Changes to exempt activities
Appendix F adds virtual fence communication towers sited more than 0.6 miles from an occupied lek to the exempt (“de minimis”) list. It also drops the express exemption EO 2019-3 provided for maintenance of existing private and county roads within a right-of-way; the appendix now says only that road construction outside an existing right-of-way is not de minimis. Road activity within highway and county road rights-of-way established before August 1, 2008 is instead treated as a valid existing right under Appendix D.
Mining provisions
Appendix D now allows coal operations authorized before October 2, 2015 to continue and expand through subsequent permit revisions and mining-plan modifications, including within an approved Logical Mining Unit or other life-of-mine planning document. Appendix E exempts reclamation, monitoring, and bond-release activities required under an existing mine permit from seasonal use stipulations, and allows in-situ mining production and maintenance between March 15 and June 30 where minimal vegetation removal is required inside a perimeter monitoring well ring.
Other additions
Finally, the order adds provisions addressing wild horse and burro herd management, local predator management, and expanded habitat restoration.
Implications for Air Quality Permitting
EO 2026-07 does not change New Source Review or PSD applicability, BACT requirements, dispersion modeling protocols, Title V obligations, or NSPS and NESHAP applicability. The Wyoming Department of Environmental Quality is among the agencies directed to implement the order, and WDEQ air permit applications have to identify whether the facility is located in a sage-grouse area. With roughly 600,000 acres added to the map, some sites that answered “no” under EO 2019-3 will now answer “yes.” Beyond that disclosure, the practical effects are on siting and schedule:
- New projects in newly added Core Population Areas face a 0.6-mile no surface occupancy buffer, a 5 percent disturbance cap, and a limit of one activity per 640 acres. Those limits can affect equipment layout, and if the layout moves, the modeling has to move with it.
- Seasonal limits can shrink the construction window. A project that loses a spring season to lek restrictions can end up tight against its construction permit’s commencement deadline.
- Appendix E keeps the lek noise limit unchanged: 10 decibels above baseline at the perimeter of an occupied lek during the breeding season (March 1 to May 15, 6 p.m. to 8 a.m.), with baseline sound levels established before project start using WGFD protocols. The order still references the July 2019 version of those protocols. The limit appears only in the Core Population Area general stipulations, not in those for Stewardship, Connectivity, or Winter Concentration Areas.
- EO 2019-3 contained a drafting error defining transmission lines as supporting voltages under 36 kV. Appendix E now defines transmission lines as 60 kV and above and distribution lines as below 60 kV. For power generation and data center projects, that changes how an interconnection or gen-tie line is classified and which corridor and siting provisions apply.
- Appendix C now uses the line-intercept method for the 5 percent sagebrush canopy cover threshold used in the “suitable” habitat definition, instead of the point-intercept method specified in EO 2019-3. Habitat surveyed under the old method may not classify the same way under the new one.
Pending Applications Are Protected
Appendix E keeps the provision that the Executive Order in effect when a formal application is deemed complete remains in effect through the final permit. Applications filed and deemed complete before September 17, 2026 should still be reviewed under EO 2019-3 and its appendices, even if a site falls within a newly added Core Population Area.
Recommended Actions
If you have existing or planned Wyoming operations, re-screen site boundaries against the revised Core Area maps, ideally before lek-season restrictions start in the spring. If you have an application pending, confirm and document its completeness date. For assistance evaluating how the revised sage grouse executive order affects a specific facility or project, contact our Wyoming Operations Manager, Austin Buley.
