During their September 2, 2014 hearing, the Morgan County Council, in a 3-3 tie vote, declined to approve a change that might have spelled disaster for the 3,000 acre site of land that is home to two important Sage Grouse leks.

Property owners of the Yaryca site had requested that the site be re-designated from “Natural Resources – Recreation” to “Master Planned Community” – a move that would have paved the way for re-zoning and then selling the site, in an expansive plan, featuring condos and resorts, that would have entailed a massive construction project.

The development plan is not dead, and it may well resurface; but this vote, which is a victory for the Sage Grouse, has bought time, and the sense of possibility that this destructive plan may be permanently forestalled. It gives time for gathering further public awareness about the downsides of replacing wilderness with development – and…