SAGE GROUSE ESA PROTECTIONS MOVE FORWARD

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is gathering scientific input on sage grouse population trends and threats to the species as it considers a petition submitted by conservation groups including BCA to protect the grouse under the Endangered Species Act (ESA).

Wyoming is the core of the bird's remaining range, but oil and gas development is rapidly destroying vast acreages of prime habitat. Sage grouse in the Powder River Basin, hit by both coalbed methane drilling and West Nile virus, are in imminent danger of disappearing. Elsewhere in the state, increasing road construction and drilling activity in places like the Red Desert and the Upper Green River Basin are eroding some of the last stable populations worldwide. The plight of the sage grouse is even worse in other states.

ESA protections for sage grouse would provide an umbrella of protection for other disappearing wildlife, such as the pygmy rabbit, ferruginous hawk, and burrowing owl, which also depend on sagebrush habitat. Already, the prospect of Endangered Species action for the sage grouse is responsible for many local action plans to protect the bird as well as a Wyoming state proposal to provide at least limited protection for selected sage grouse hotspots.

 

BLM CREATES NEW SAGE GROUSE PROTECTIONS

The BLM has finally recognized that its standard sage grouse protection measures are not preventing population declines in the face of oil, gas, and coalbed methane development. The agency is now proposing a plan amendment that would alter coalbed methane drilling the Powder River Basin, and is offering new interim drilling restrictions that don't protect all important habitats.

In the interim, the BLM plans to place the approval of drilling permits in certain key sage grouse habitats on hold. However, these measures would not apply to most key habitats, only to those that have yet to be drilled. Also, loopholes are proposed: Anywhere that has current oil and gas infrastructure, drilling permits that were approved but not yet drilled, or areas where coalbed methane could be drained from neighboring CBM wells on private land, would be exempted from protections.

BCA and American Lands Alliance have a case pending before the U.S. District Court of Wyoming to prevent the destruction of sage grouse and prairie dog habitat irresponsibly approved by the BLM's massive increase in coalbed methane development in the Powder River Basin; we won an identical case before the Montana District in 2005.

The BLM's recognition of the failure of seasonal stipulations to protect sage grouse is a big step forward for an agency that has been in denial for years. However, the proposed interim protections will not be applied to the vast majority of sage grouse habitat under threat. The BLM developed the proposal at a closed-door meeting with the Petroleum Association of Wyoming in Laramie on May 8th, to which sage grouse conservation groups (notably BCA) were not invited. If the proposal goes forward as is, the likely end result will be that populations already badly damaged by drilling activity in the center of the basin will suffer additional degradation from a raft of proposed well fields to which the new conservation measures would not apply.

Write to the BLM and ask that the agency halt approvals for drilling in all important sage grouse habitats, not just those that industry doesn't want to drill. Send comments by June 15th to: Tom Bills, Buffalo Field Office, BLM, 1425 Fort Street, Buffalo, WY 82834, or by email to tom_bills@blm.gov.

 

WRITE TO PREVENT DRILLING IN RED LAKE DUNES

Yates Petroleum is leading an effort to ramp up drilling in the Red Lake Dunes proposed wilderness area, in the heart of the Red Desert. Calling it the "Luman Rim Project," Yates proposes full-field development of 58 new wells in an area that includes roughly 6,000 acres of the citizens' proposed wilderness adjacent to the currently protected Red Lake Wilderness Study Area. This is an area of actively migrating sand dunes that support a unique and fragile community of plants and wildlife, and will take centuries to heal once the surface has been disturbed. Send your comments by June 19th to the BLM, asking that the proposed wilderness lands be excluded from the project. Send comments to: Jeromy Caldwell, Luman Rim Project, Rock Springs BLM, 280 Hwy. 191 North, Rock Springs, WY 82901, or via email to rock_springs_wymail@blm.gov (please add "Luman Rim Project EA" in the subject line). Thanks for helping to protect the Red Desert's most sensitive areas!