(CNN) The Interior Department finalized changes Friday to protections for the sage grouse bird, which could open lands in seven Western states to oil and gas drilling.

The Interior Department has been working on changing sage grouse protections since June 2017, when former Secretary Ryan Zinke signed an order asking federal and state governments to strengthen "communication and collaboration... with the shared goal of conserving" sage grouse while also not impeding "local economic opportunities," according to the Bureau of Land Management.

The effort looked at changing land use guidelines across the West that had been put in place under the Obama administration in 2015 to protect the bird's habitat.

Under Zinke, Interior asked 11 states whether they thought changes should be made to the 2015 plans, and seven said they thought there should be changes, according to BLM. The department's task force recommended that sage grouse not be protected under the Endangered Species Act and suggested changing land use guidelines in the states that indicated they thought there should be changes to the plans.

The states impacted by Interior's new sage grouse plan are Oregon, Colorado, Idaho, Utah, Wyoming, Nevada and northeastern parts of California.

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