The original petition to list the Greater Sage Grouse was mailed to the USFWS in June, 2002 by Craig Dremann of Redwood City. Dremann, for his petition, quoted a Department of Interior document about the declining status of the bird, putting the USFWS in the difficult position of having to argue against another Federal agency's findings. The reason why Dremann sought the listing, is after driving across the bird's range in 1997, and noting what vegetation grew at each post mile, from California to South Dakota and back, recorded how damaged and destroyed the native sagebrush understory habitat had become from lack of management of the grazing of public lands.