RAWLINS, WY – Citizens from around Wyoming today criticized the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) has ignored calls for conservation and balanced multiple use in the agency’s long-term management of 4.5 million acres of public land and minerals currently managed by the BLM’s Rawlins Field Office under the Great Divide Resource Management Plan in southern Wyoming. These lands cover the eastern half of the Red Desert and include nationally important big game and sage grouse populations, historic sites like the Overland Trail, numerous Native American sacred sites, as well as sensitive landscapes such as the massive cliffs and pinnacles of the Adobe Town proposed wilderness.

“We’ve already got enough oil and gas development out there,” said Kim Johnson of Fort Washakie. “What we really need is a plan that protect the pristine areas that are left.”

The BLM is considering four alternatives, including a continuation of existing management. The ‘Preferred Alternative’ locks in the weak wildlife protections and high-impact drilling practices currently in use while reducing the number of Areas of Critical Environmental Concern and leaving wilderness lands in Adobe Town open to future drilling. Even the so-called ‘Resource Protection’ alternative, while protecting much of Adobe Town, would not implement scientifically credible wildlife habitat protections and would leave proposed wilderness such as Wild Cow Creek and the Pedro Mountains unprotected. Each alternative plans for over 8,000 wells to be drilled over the life of the new plan, which is six times more drilling than was envisioned under the original plan, which has guided land management over the past 14 years.

“None of the alternatives considered by the BLM provide the kind of balance that would allow development while conserving the outstanding wildlife resources and sensitive landscapes of the Great Divide,” said Rick Bezanson of Friends of the Red Desert. “My number one concern is for the wildlife and their habitat; if we lose their habitat, they can’t just check in to the Holiday Inn.”

“Each alternative considered by the BLM promotes a business-as-usual approach,” added Erik Molvar, wildlife biologist for Biodiversity Conservation Alliance. “Instead of embracing advanced technologies like directional drilling to reduce the footprint of development and keep impacts away from sensitive wildlife habitats, the agency is proposing the traditional heavy-impact methods for oil and gas drilling, but on a much grander scale.”

Each of the alternatives under consideration would allow full-field development in the most sensitive wildlife habitats, and emphasize seasonal stipulations that only determine what time of year roads and wells can be built.

"The Steamboat Mountain elk study and the Sublette mule deer study demonstrate that seasonal measures aren't enough to protect crucial ranges for big game. Oil and gas development is driving the animals off their preferred habitats," added Kate Zimmerman of the National Wildlife Federation. "We need a 'no net loss' policy for our wildlife resources. BLM's draft plan doesn't provide that."

According to Wyoming Game and Fish Department figures, hunting, fishing, and wildlife watching in the Great Divide contribute $115 million annually to the Wyoming economy.

“We have a lot of hunters and sportsmen in our union who want to see healthy populations of elk, pronghorn, and sage grouse, not oil and gas fields in the middle of winter ranges,” said Tony Herrera of the United Steel Workers in Rock Springs, “None of these alternatives protect the wildlife populations and open spaces that are so important to sportsmen.”

Citizens submitted a comprehensive, science-based alternative for the plan, known as the Western Heritage Alternative, which features lower-impact drilling methods and moving the surface impacts of development away from sensitive landscapes. This alternative would withdraw the 8% of the lands qualifying for wilderness from future oil and gas leasing and would allow leasing under sensitive wildlife habitats as long as the roads and well sites were built outside the most sensitive areas. The BLM refused to consider this alternative as an option for future land management.

“The BLM should really consider the Western Heritage Alternative as their preferred option,” said longtime Casper resident Carol Long. “I am very concerned about the possibility of degrading water quality in the Platte River drainage from coalbed methane, destroying parts of Adobe Town, and giving little consideration to wildlife that the BLM’s preferred alternative entails.”

The BLM’s preferred plan would leave important landscapes like Adobe Town, Wild Cow Creek and the Pedro Mountains unprotected.

“Adobe Town is a landscape of national park quality, and is the biggest and most spectacular desert wilderness in the state,” said Joyce Evans of Saratoga. “It’s appalling that the Preferred Alternative would leave key parts of Adobe Town unprotected. Protections need to happen at the planning stage because we have too many instances of projects with ‘no significant impact’ that are leaving permanent scars on our public lands.”

“The BLM is not into ‘giving’ in this holiday season," said Liz Howell, Director of the Wyoming Wilderness Association, "Their proposed plan would take the wild out of important wilderness landscapes, leaving dazzling areas like Adobe Town's wilderness additions, and Pedro Mountains and Wild Cow Creek a lump of proverbial coal in our stockings. Wyoming citizens love their special areas, and we won't let the BLM grinch steal away what makes Wyoming an amazing place to live."

To review the Western Heritage Alternative, visit www.voiceforthewild.org/greatdivide/index.html. Photographs of Adobe Town and other Great Divide landscapes by Erik Molvar or BCA are available for publication at www.voiceforthewild.org/general/photoalbum/adobetown/rd_photo4.html.