Black Crow - White Crow Band         Photo by Duane Short

CROWD GATHERS TO CELEBRATE ADOBE TOWN VICTORY

Over 100 BCA supporters celebrated the BLM's decision to pull 15,000 acres of pristine desert back country in Adobe Town off the auction block in the December, 2010 oil and gas lease sale. BCA hosted the party to thank those people who attended public hearings, wrote letters, contacted public officials, and supported BCA's work. Without this public input, these Adobe Town acres would never have been spared. The celebration was held on January 27, 2010, at the newly-opened Front Street Lounge in Laramie. The Black Crow-White Crow Band generously contributed their music and lounge owner Melissa Zieres graciously donated the hors d'oeuvres.

On January 27, 2010, BCA and several of its members met with the Albany County Commissioners to discuss alternatives to the Green Rock Snowmobile Parking Lot that is now being re-evaluated by the Forest Service. The proposed parking lot is about a mile southeast of Brooklyn Lake near the timberline of the Snowy Range. BCA opposes this location because of the damage snowmobile recreation does to wildlife and its negative impacts on landscapes. Although a few snowmobilers also attended the meeting, the vast majority of about 30 attendees opposed the Green Rock Snowmobile Parking lot. Last year BCA members and the general public sent comments to the Forest Service that were 92 percent opposed to the Green Rock parking lot.  Much work is still needed to stop the congestion, danger, noise, commotion, noxious fumes, and all else that comes with hundreds of snowmobiles darting about on and along the highway. Members of the Albany County Commissioners, the  Wyoming Department of Transportation (WYDOT), the Wyoming Department of Tourism, and the Forest Service each need to hear from you. Even though scientific studies have revealed that snowmobile recreation damages wildlife, and negatively impacts scenery and the landscape, the fate of the Snowies may rest on public input rather than science and common sense. Be on the lookout for a BCA Alert that will provide addresses, background information and talking points for future action.

The Wyoming Range rises above the western portion of the Green River Valley. The Wyoming Range includes extensive roadless areas, is habitat to rare species such as the lynx and wolverine, and offers outstanding recreational opportunities.The Bridger-Teton National Forest has released a supplemental Environmental Impact Statement on leasing in the 44,700 acres of the Wyoming Range that were not protected from the oil and gas industry by a Congressional act last year.  The Forest Service could have reinstated 21,000 acres of leases that the BLM withdrew last August, but are proposing not to.This is a great decision and illustrates the new direction federal agencies are now taking toward drilling, in which some lands are being protected for their high wildlife and recreation values while oil and gas drilling occurs elsewhere.

Visit http://www.fs.fed.us/nepa/project_content.php?project=24734 to view the new EIS, and send your letter supporting the Forest Service plan to end oil and gas leasing to Kniffy Hamilton, Bridger-Teton N.F., P.O. Box 1888, Jackson, WY 83001 by the end of February.

The new call for proposals to lease federal lands for oil shale research and development received applications for two leases in Colorado and one in Utah, but no applications in Wyoming. While oil shale deposits in Colorado can be up to 50 feet thick and produce up to 50 gallons of pre-oil "kerogen" per ton of rock, Wyoming's oil shale has less energy than a similar weight of Cap'n Crunch cereal or cow manure.

Given the complete destruction of the land required to extract it, huge energy costs to recover it, the potential for serious pollution of air and water, and the immense appetite of oil shale operations for scarce water resources, oil shale is certainly a form of carbon that should remain sequestered underground.

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission has announced a proposal to create a 4,000-acre leach field for underground uranium recovery in the middle of a sage grouse Core Area in the Red Desert about 30 miles north of Wamsutter. The project would involve "in situ leaching." In this process chemicals that release uranium from ore rock are injected underground and then the dissolved uranium is pumped back to the surface for refining. The process requires a complex array of over 100 injection and production wells spaced a few hundred feet apart, and can result in serious groundwater contamination. BCA has submitted scientific and technical analysis opposing the project due to the negative impacts on sage grouse.