Biodiversity Conservation Alliance

This morning U.S. Department of Interior Secretary Ken Salazar unveiled a new federal policy on oil and gas development on public lands, promising better protection for sensitive wildlife habitats, citizens' proposed wilderness areas, municipal watersheds, and lands near national parks.

Noting in Wednesday's press conference that under the Bush administration the BLM had been "a handmaiden of industry" while the oil industry treated the public lands like "a candy store, where they could just walk in and take anything they wanted," Secretary Salazar promised "major reforms" the agency's oil and gas leasing program, as well as reining in the use of controversial Categorical Exclusions, in which oil and gas drilling is approved without environmental review or an opportunity for public comment.

In particular, BLM will now be required to perform site-specific environmental reviews on oil and gas lease parcels before they are offered at auction, and the oil industry will no longer be the driving force behind which public lands get offered for lease.

Click here for a side-by-side comparison of the new policy versus the pre-existing oil and gas process, and you can read online the new Secretarial Order on Energy Management Reform.

Secretary Salazar asserted that if the BLM could do oil and gas development right, without threatening the wildlife and lands so important to the public, that there would be fewer delays from oil and gas lease protests and lawsuits. BCA staff heartily agrees, and we look forward to the day when these lofty aspirations and strong commitments become reality.

Over the Christmas holidays, the BLM quietly posted new policies for oil and gas leasing and development in Wyoming that affects key sage grouse habitats. The central focus of the new management framework is the Governor's sage grouse Core Areas. BCA has criticized the Core Areas in the past because lands of interest to the oil and gas industry were excluded from protection, and because less than a quarter of the most important sage grouse habitats in the Powder River Basin were designated as Core Areas.

The new BLM policy elevates the level of protection in Core Areas, but fails to provide guarantees that conservation measures will be applied, even there.

Outside Core Areas, at best sage grouse will get timing stipulations (restriction of the timing and season of development activities) that biologists and Governor Freudenthal have derided as ineffective. At worst there will be no protective measures at all outside the Core Areas, which is actually worse than the Bush era sage grouse policy.

While some conservation groups are exuberant in their praise of the new sage grouse measures, the actual gains are questionable. The BLM will have the opportunity to use this new framework to make oil and gas development more compatible with sage grouse conservation, but the new measures by no means guarantee that adequate sage grouse conservation will occur, even for grouse lucky enough to live inside the politically derived confines of Core Areas. The bottom line is that the BLM had a golden opportunity to put in place hard-and-fast conservation measures for sage grouse, and they chose not to seize this opportunity, leaving the precarious fate of sage grouse across Wyoming to the whims of future land management decisions.

Watch for a more in-depth analysis of the new policy in the near future.

Photo of Wyoming pocket gopher by Hayden-Wing Associates, LLC

The Wyoming BLM has announced an upcoming oil and gas lease sale for February 2, 2010, including several parcels of important habitat for the Wyoming pocket gopher. One of the rarest mammals in North America, this rodent is only found in south-central Wyoming. BCA authored a petition to protect the Wyoming pocket gopher under the Endangered Species Act, in large part because its habitat is under heavy threat by oil and gas operations. Even as the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service considers BCA's petition for listing, the BLM seeks to move forward with increased development in the rare species' already limited range. BCA staff will file protests against the lease sale of parcels containing Wyoming pocket gopher habitat, and we will remind the BLM of its multiple use mandate to manage public lands so as not to cause unnecessary or undue degradation, including to wildlife habitat. We will ask that the BLM consult its sister agency closely as Fish and Wildlife considers protecting the gopher.

Wyoming pocket gopher photo by Hayden-Wing Associates, LLC

NEW YEAR FUND-RAISING OFF TO A GREAT START - THANK YOU!

The battle to protect Wyoming's special landscapes is hot, hopes are high, and exciting movement towards change is being made - just see the above article about Secretary Salazar! At the same time, the economic recession has affected foundations' investments, and reduced their ability to give.

Individual contributions are especially critical this year. BCA will have to replace $50,000 in foundation contributions in 2010. Many contributors, both large and small, have already chipped in to protect wild places in Wyoming. BCA's staff is excited to see people investing in this important work!

If you're proud to be part of the cause, please encourage a friend to donate as well - just tell them to click on the yellow "Make a donation" button on BCA's website.

In the meantime, THANK YOU SO MUCH for supporting BCA's mission!

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

Biodiversity Conservation Alliance
P.O. Box 1512, Laramie, WY 82073
(307) 742-7978 - sarah@voiceforthewild.org