Laramie, WY (March 15) - The outstanding wildlife, cultural and recreational resources of Wyoming's Great Divide are too valuable to be left unprotected and opened to oil and gas development, according to a report released today by the National Wildlife Federation and the Biodiversity Conservation Alliance. The Special Values of the Great Divide is the first in-depth assessment of the area's natural and cultural resources.

"This report should be a wake-up call to state and federal officials that we need to act now and protect Wyoming's wild places," said Kate Zimmerman, Senior Land Stewardship Policy Specialist for the National Wildlife Federation. "Otherwise, our children and grandchildren will not have big game to hunt, unmarred landscapes to enjoy or wilderness areas to recreate in."

The Great Divide covers the eastern half of Wyoming's Red Desert. Its badlands, mountains and sand dunes provide habitat for hundreds of wildlife species, including the imperiled sage grouse, the rare ferruginous hawk and some of the largest surviving herds of pronghorn in the country. The region also has a rich cultural history. It is the ancestral homeland of the Shoshone and Ute peoples, and the former stomping grounds of the notorious Western outlaws Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid.

"Wyoming's open space, abundant wildlife and spectacular scenery are an irreplaceable part of our heritage," said Erik Molvar, Wildlife Biologist for Biodiversity Conservation Alliance. "Protecting these resources is not only important for Wyoming residents and their quality of life, but also for all Americans to whom these public lands also belong."

The report details the natural and cultural values of the Great Divide as well as the threats to these resources from oil, gas and coalbed methane development. Proposed development projects would include the construction of thousands of new wells, numerous wastewater ponds, and hundreds of miles of new roads, pipelines and power lines. Over two million acres of public land in the Great Divide, about 60 percent, are already open to oil and gas development projects. Drilling on these lands has altered landscapes, decreased air and water quality, limited recreation opportunities, and degraded wildlife habitat.

"Protecting the Great Divide is good for our wildlife and good for our economy," said Molvar. "Visitors come to Wyoming for our one-of-a-kind landscapes and wildlife, not our gas fields."

March 18 marks the closing period for public comments on the Bureau of Land Management's proposed Great Divide Resource Management Plan. The agency's preferred plan proposes opening most of the resource area to oil and gas development and allowance for mineral leasing without effective measures in place to conserve wildlife and essential habitats, according to the National Wildlife Federation and Biodiversity Conservation Alliance.

"We are in favor of balanced oil and gas development in the Great Divide. The Western Heritage Alternative plan, which we support, would provide proper wildlife protections while allowing for responsible industrial development," said Zimmerman. "Instead, the Bureau's plan jeopardizes essential wildlife habitat and prime hunting and recreation areas and would leave sensitive areas of Wyoming's high desert pockmarked with more than 8,000 oil and gas wells."

The National Wildlife Federation is America's conservation organization protecting wildlife for our children's future.

Biodiversity Conservation Alliance works to protect wildlife and wild places in Wyoming and surrounding states.