A December sale of federal oil and gas leases will not include 148,797 acres that are in greater sage grouse habitat in northwest Colorado.

The Colorado Bureau of Land Management said Friday that it decided to remove a total of 142 parcels after Gov. John Hickenlooper raised concerns about the impacts of drilling on sage grouse. That will leave about 75,500 acres of public lands up for lease. Most of the remaining parcels are in western Colorado.

The BLM also rescheduled the sale to Dec. 13 from Dec. 6.

“This decision is based on input from the state of Colorado,” BLM spokesman Steven Hall said.

In September, Hickenlooper and Sen. Michael Bennet sent letters to the Colorado BLM asking the agency to postpone sale of the parcels up for lease in December because of concerns about the potential impacts on wildlife, including sage grouse, and a lack of opportunity for public participation. They and area residents also expressed concern about the proposed sale of oil and gas leases on 2,380 acres of public lands in the North Fork Valley of southwest Colorado.

Hall said the North Fork Valley leases are still up for sale. He added that the leases pulled from the December sale could be offered in a future auction.

A big question hanging over the leasing of public lands in Colorado and across the West is a ruling by a federal judge in Idaho that said the public should have more say about upcoming oil and gas lease sales in greater sage grouse habitat. In September, Chief U.S. Magistrate Ronald Bush in Pocatello, Idaho, issued a preliminary injunction that temporarily replaces part of the Trump administration’s policy on the leasing of public lands with one by the Obama administration that gives the public more time to comment on and protest federal oil and gas leases.

The lands singled out in Bush’s ruling are encompassed in state and federal plans aimed at conserving greater sage grouse, whose numbers have been declining for decades.The ruling came in a lawsuit by the Center for Biological Diversity and the Idaho-based Western Watersheds Project, which claims the Bureau of Land Management violated federal laws when it revised leasing polices earlier this year.