For most of last year, the fate of two sage grouse leks in Morgan County in northern Utah was in doubt. A lek is sage grouse breeding habitat, where the sage grouse dance their unique and amazing courtship display.

Three times, beginning last year, landowners of several properties in Morgan County, totaling 2,600 acres, tried to get the rules changed to enable them to sell their property to developers who have drawn up plans to put up a gigantic complex of condos and resorts, which would inevitably have spelled doom for the sage grouse leks and for the surrounding habitat.

The Morgan County Council rejects a destructive proposal

The land in question has never been zoned for development, so several steps would have been required to enable these plans to go forward: first, officially changing the designation of the land, then, as a second step, changing the zoning itself. These…