BIODIVERSITY BROADCAST - Email Newsletter for June 2010

BLM ILLEGALLY APPROVES DRILLING IN ADOBE TOWN

In spite of its promise to allow the public to comment on the new "Desolation Road" drilling project in northern Adobe Town before approving it, the BLM last month approved an Environmental Assessment/Decision/Finding of "No Significant Impact" in one fell swoop, without public comment. One of the two gas wells and much of the 5-milelong access road would be bulldozed inside lands that the BLM itself previously admitted possess wilderness character. In the decision, the BLM denies that any of the affected lands possess wilderness qualities, a fatal flaw in the environmental analysis. Joined by The Wilderness Society, NRDC, and Defenders of Wildlife, BCA filed a Request for State Director Review challenging this decision. Click here to learn more.

U.S. DEPT OF THE INTERIOR ISSUES SWEEPING OIL AND GAS REFORMS

In a bold move, the Interior Department took its first step toward a major overhaul of oil and gas management, which has been out of control across the West for the past decade. The new reforms require each parcel of land offered for lease in periodic oil and gas auctions to first undergo a site-specific environmental review. In addition, the policy of issuing "Categorical Exclusions" to permit wells without any impact analysis has been changed, so that this loophole will not be available in cases where significant impacts might result from drilling. This new policy is a welcome relief after years of Wyoming's bimonthly everything-but-the-kitchen-sink lease auctions. BCA staff applauds the Interior Department's new "look before you lease" policy. For more information, click here.

BCA LAWSUIT CHALLENGES GREAT DIVIDE MANAGEMENT PLAN

Map of the Great Divide Area

Partnering with Natural Resources Defense Council and other conservation groups, BCA launched a legal challenge against the Great Divide Management Plan, which covers 4.6 million acres including the eastern half of Wyoming's Red Desert. The BLM-approved plan opened up 98 percent of the area to oil and gas leasing, including much of the Adobe Town citizens' proposed wilderness. The BLM plan also ignored the BCA-authored Western Heritage Alternative, which provides a blueprint for responsible oil and gas development and conservation of sensitive lands and wildlife across the area. Learn more by clicking here.

VICTORY AT SAND CREEK VERY RARE OR UNCOMMON DESIGNATION PETITION PRELIMINARY HEARING

BCA successfully beat back a motion filed by mining interests to dismiss a petition to protect the Black Hills' Sand Creek Roadless Area as "Very Rare or Uncommon" under state law. The Motion alleged that BCA Director Erik Molvar illegally practiced law without being admitted to the bar by simply submitting the petition. It also alleged that a signature was missing from the petition, but was required by law. Any person may submit a petition and represent their organization at hearings without being an attorney, and signatures are not required for Very Rare or Uncommon petitions. Thankfully, BCA was able to convince the state Environmental Quality Council of these facts, and the Motion to Dismiss was torpedoed by a 6-1 vote of the council. Sand Creek protections are now back on track for consideration at public hearings July 7-9, 2010, in Sundance, Wyoming. Sand Creek Roadless Area is a rare jewel of old growth in the Black Hills National Forest, and has supported species huddled together in an unusual community since the last Ice Age. Very Rare or Uncommon designation by the Wyoming Environmental Quality Council would protect Sand Creek from mining.

TEAM REDRAWS WYOMING SAGE GROUSE CORE AREAS

A collaborative team assembled by Governor Freudenthal met last Friday to redraw the boundaries of the state's sage grouse Core Areas, based on the recommendations of Local Working Groups around the state. The Core Area plan is a mapping effort to protect sage grouse habitat from degradation with policy recommendations. In some places, sage grouse protected Core Areas were expanded, including the Thunder Basin National Grassland and the Bighorn Basin. BCA was the most vocal conservation group at the meeting, leading to Core Area expansion by thousands of acres to better protect sage grouse. "Connectivity areas" were adopted in the Powder River Basin to link different populations with protected habitat for breeding and healthy genetic transfer between grouse. However, in the western two-thirds of the Basin, the largest populations of sage grouse are directly threatened by coalbed methane drilling; the connectivity areas are only a slight improvement for a population under dire threat of local extinction.

The sage grouse's future lies in the hand that draws the map. Photo credit: Ben Franklin.

Unfortunately, major subtractions from previously-existing Core Areas were also made. Undeveloped lands within the sights of the Atlantic Rim Coalbed Methane Project were eliminated from Core Area protections, allowing future drilling to avoid even the modest modifications required inside their boundaries. And a coal-to-liquids plant near Elk Mountain was carved out of the Core Area where it was proposed as well.

If present trends continue, and industry can succeed in carving out large chunks of prime habitat inside Core Areas whenever industrial development is desired, then the Core Area plan becomes meaningless in terms of habitat--it will not provide protection against the types of industrial use that are most threatening to the grouse's survival.

All in all, the Core Area policy is a good concept. Unfortunately, the whims of industry are currently given more consideration than the biological needs of the grouse. In addition, persistent loopholes allow levels of industrial use inside Core Areas that are clearly incompatible with maintaining today's grouse populations, much less recovering them to healthy levels. The grouse needs citizens and conservation groups to speak up loudly whenever possible, to prevent being drowned out by the wishes of corporate interests.

WYOMING GAME AND FISH RECOMMENDATIONS FOR WIND FARMS A MIXED BAG

The Wyoming Game and Fish Commission voted to approve recommendations for wind power development put forward by the Wyoming Game and Fish Department--recommendations that play a key role when the state's Industrial Siting Council makes decisions about industrial-size wind farms. The recommendations provide very strong protection for bats and reptiles. But, under pressure from the wind industry, the Commission backed off on protections for sage grouse, especially regarding transmission lines, where the recommendations are biologically inadequate according to BCA analysis.

Photo of Columbian Sharp-tailed grouse by USFS

Columbian sharp-tailed grouse, such as the one shown here, should benefit from BCA's participation in Game and Fish recommendations for wind farms. Photo credit: USFS.

According to the recommendations, Sage Grouse Core Areas will be protected from wind development, except where a "Comprehensive Conservation Agreement with Assurances" (CCAA) can be negotiated with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. But the Fish and Wildlife Service has stated that wind projects are not eligible for a CCAA, because it only applies to existing uses and not future projects, effectively closing the loophole.

BCA has weighed in heavily throughout the Department's wind farm recommendation process, and some of our recommendations to strengthen protections for sensitive wildlife, particularly for the Columbian sharp-tailed grouse, made it into the final document. Overall, the recommendations are not strong enough to put wildlife first, but are an improvement over the policy vacuum that had gone before.