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VICTORY — BLM WON'T LEASE 85K ACRES TO OIL & GAS
The Bureau of Land Management (BLM) announced the day before yesterday its resolution of oil and gas lease protests from the June 2008 lease sale, a period when the Bush administration and the oil and gas industry were pushing through vast tracts of leases. Some 85,587 acres of oil and gas leases will now not be issued in areas including key sage grouse habitats (51,296 acres), the Red Butte citizens' proposed wilderness in the Bighorn Basin (2,113 acres), and lands in the Bighorn Basin, Lander area, and Casper area where major BLM land management plan revisions or amendments are underway (32,291 additional acres). The BLM cited BCA's protest as a reason not to issue leases for each of the parcels that were deferred. BCA was joined by the Center for Native Ecosystems in protesting the plan revision and wilderness issues and by the Center for Native Ecosystems, Western Resource Advocates, and the Theodore Roosevelt Conservation Partnership in protesting the sage grouse leases.
BCA HELPS MEDICINE BOW HABITAT REHABILITATION
This route will fragment Medicine Bow habitat no more thanks to the Forest Service, Resource Advisory Committee, and BCA. Photo credit: Forest Service.
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BCA Wild Species Program Director Duane Short was chosen earlier this year by United States Department of Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsac to serve a four-year term as one of three Albany County representatives to the Resource Advisory Committee (RAC) for the Medicine Bow-Routt National Forest.
Recently, the RAC approved $25,000 to decommission roads throughout the Medicine Bow in Albany County and restore to a natural condition. Some 12 miles of roads were restored in 2007 and 131 miles in 2008. Benefits of the project include erosion prevention at 88 stream crossings, rehabilitation of 60 wetlands, and habitat restoration on 45,879 acres.
SAND CREEK ROADLESS AREA PETITION HEARING SUCCESS
The Sand Creek Roadless area is a moist, cool area where ice-age plants found refuge as glaciers retreated, leaving a rare botanical community in need of protection.
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BCA's efforts to get the Sand Creek Roadless area in the Black Hills designated as 'Very Rare or Uncommon' under state law took another step forward in July as the Wyoming Environmental Quality Council voted 4 - 2 to recognize that potentially rare values were present and move the petition on to a formal hearing in October. Sand Creek is one of the last wild areas left in the Black Hills; the area harbors old-growth forests, unique communities of rare plants hailing from subarctic lands and Eastern hardwood forests. It is currently threatened by strip mining for gold and copper. Very Rare or Uncommon designation would protect it, so please gather any stories or pictures you may have of Sand Creek and be prepared to show the Council what is so rare about this uncommon area.
THUNDER BASIN PRAIRIE DOG RELOCATION MOVES FORWARD
A black-tailed prairie dog considers a cage during the Thunder Basin relocation project.
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BCA is happy to report that as of August 2, 2010, 370 black-tailed prairie dogs have been trapped and relocated to public land areas a couple of miles away that are currently being prepared for black-footed ferret reintroduction. So far, this first-of-its-kind project is being touted as a success. BCA staff have been part of this collaborative effort to restore black-tailed prairie dogs to formerly-occupied colonies in the Thunder Basin National Grassland since 2004. BCA has also supplied the United States Forest Service with a list of two-dozen volunteers interested in helping with this historic effort.
MCCULLOUGH PEAKS DRILLING BACK TO THE DRAWING BOARD
Thanks to a Request for State Director Review led by the Wyoming Outdoor Council and joined by BCA, the Friends of a Legacy wild horse group, and the Greater Yellowstone Coalition, the United States Bureau of Land Management has halted the seven-well "Rocktober" drilling project planned for the southern flank of the McCullough Peaks in the Bighorn Basin. This project, which would damage a sage grouse Core Area as well as a small wild horse herd and scenic vistas near the McCullough Peaks Wilderness Study Area, will now go back to square one, if the Bill Barrett Corporation, which proposed the project, elects to try again.
McCullough Peaks area spared from oil and gas drilling for now. Photo credit: Northwest Community College.
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COURTS WON'T SAVE ATLANTIC RIM FROM COALBED METHANE
In a blow to conservation of one of Wyoming's three biggest sage grouse breeding concentration areas, the District of Columbia Circuit Court of Appeals has upheld the approval by the United States Bureau of Land Management (BLM) of the 2,000-well Atlantic Rim coalbed methane project. BCA and our partners the Natural Resources Defense Council, Wyoming Wilderness Association, and Wyoming Outdoor Council, plus the Theodore Roosevelt Conservation Partnership in a separate suit, all did our best to halt this destructive project. But in the end, the court ruled that the BLM had broad authority to approve such projects, even in the face of flawed air quality analysis, inadequate sage grouse conservation measures, and levels of drilling that far exceeded levels analyzed during Resource Management Plan analysis. BCA will continue to watchdog drilling along the Atlantic Rim, especially in the Wild Cow Creek citizens' proposed wilderness, and if we are able to prevail in our legal challenge against the Great Divide Resource Management Plan, which covers this area, additional protections may still be possible.
Biodiversity Conservation Alliance
P.O. Box 1512, Laramie, WY 82073
(307) 742-7978 - sarah@voiceforthewild.org
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