Programs

BCA Fights Scorched Earth Drilling in Wyoming's Jonah Field.

Wyoming has over 18 million acres of public lands administered by the U.S. Bureau of Land Management (BLM). Unlike National Forest lands, BLM lands are typically at lower elevations where conditions are hotter and drier. As a result, most BLM lands in Wyoming are desert environments, with badlands, dune fields, rock outcrops, sagebrush communities, alkali flats and other special environments. Like the Forest Service, BLM has not prioritized protecting wild places or conserving sensitive species on public lands in Wyoming. Instead, BLM has managed public lands largely for livestock and to maximize oil, gas, coal, and other mineral development. Thousands of miles of roads and pipeline scars now mar the landscape on BLM lands. But some BLM lands remain undeveloped, at least for now.

These lands are the last remnants of the arid wild west that still exist in the State. These lands convey a sense of the wide open, untrammeled country that existed here before settlement, of the vastness of the land and the sky. And they are incredibly beautiful -- not the same kind of beauty one experiences looking at a snow-capped peak, but a beauty associated with natural simplicity, openness, and desolation.

The arid BLM lands in Wyoming are also remarkable in the number of extraordinary plant and animal communities they contain, some found nowhere else in the world. The variation of geologic outcrops and soil conditions has resulted in rare and specialized plant species, such as the Small Rock Cress and Desert Yellowhead. Southwest Wyoming is home to rare and unusual animal species such as the Pygmy Rabbit and Midget Faded Rattlesnake.

Unfortunately, there are many threats to sensitive species and special values on BLM lands. Thousands of new oil and gas wells are planned on BLM lands in the next decade alone. There are new coal mining proposals, and countless coalbed methane wells in planning. These activities could eliminate most of the remaining BLM wildlands in Wyoming in the coming years and could also significantly impact sensitive species such as the Sage Grouse, White-Tailed Prairie Dog, and Ferruginous Hawk.

To address these threats, the Biodiversity Conservation Alliance has embarked on a program to gain protection for the special values on BLM lands in Wyoming. Through this program we are inventorying and evaluating BLM lands for undeveloped areas, especially those that have been overlooked in earlier "roadless area" inventories. We are also working to gain better long-range management plans for BLM lands -- plans that will protect special places and sensitive species. And, when a proposed project on BLM lands threatens wild places or sensitive species, we oppose that project -- by writing comments, having meetings with agency officials, organizing citizens to express their opposition, filing administrative protests, and (if necessary) bringing legal challenges against the BLM.