LARAMIE – Tallies released by the Bureau of Land Management indicate that protective measures designed to reduce impacts to sensitive wildlife habitats are routinely ignored by the BLM at the request of the oil and gas industry. For the Rawlins office of the BLM, “exceptions” were granted to wildlife protections at the request of industry on 66 of 79 occasions this year, an 83.5% waiver rate. The Rawlins BLM manages the eastern half of Wyoming’s spectacular Red Desert under the Great Divide Resource Management Plan.

“The wildlife protective measures that the BLM currently requires of the oil and gas industry are so weak to start with that they are not preventing major impacts,” said Erik Molvar, wildlife biologist for Biodiversity Conservation Alliance. “It is appalling that even these paltry measures are being cast aside almost every time industry requests it.”

“These numbers would seem to refute the frequent refrain of the oil and gas industry that wildlife and wilderness considerations hinder their operations,” added Bill Beagle of The Wilderness Society. “According to these figures, the BLM is not only addressing industry concerns, they are being more than accommodating in granting exceptions.”

Even if the current protective measures were upheld, the best available science indicates that they are too weak. For example, the BLM allows road and construction as close as a quarter mile to sage grouse lek sites, the traditional dancing grounds that are the hub of mating and nesting activity, as long as construction occurs during the off-season. But sage grouse experts recommend that all oil and gas facilities be located at least two miles from lek sites (1).

BLM also allows the construction of oil and gas fields on big game crucial winter range, with only timing limitations that prevent construction from occurring during the winter season. But a recent Red Desert study showed that elk avoid roads and well sites by half a mile in the winter and over a mile in the summer, long after construction activities have ceased (2). Thus, the construction of full-field oil and gas development in crucial winter range essentially creates an avoidance zone for elk for the life of the well field.

Despite the fact that these protective measures are rather nominal, the Rawlins BLM granted waivers in a large majority of cases for each type of wildlife habitat protection:

• Big game crucial winter range: 73% (8 of 11)
• Bird of prey nest sites: 89% (31 of 35)
• Sage grouse leks and nesting habitat: 84% (32 of 38)
• Mountain plover nesting habitat: 87% (20 of 23)

“If we really want to protect our wildlife legacy in the West for future generations to enjoy, these protective measures need to be substantially strengthened, not pushed aside,” Molvar concluded.

(1) Connelly, J.W., M.A. Schroeder, A.R. Sands, and C.E. Braun. 2000. Guidelines to manage sage grouse populations and the habitats. Wildlife Society Bulletin 28:967-985. “Energy-related facilities should be located > 3.2 km from active leks whenever possible.” p. 978.

(2) Powell, J.H. 2003. Distribution, habitat use patterns, and elk response to human disturbance in the Jack Morrow Hills, Wyoming. Master of Science Thesis, Univ. of Wyoming, 52 pp.