BIODIVERSITY BROADCAST - Email Newsletter for May 2010

BCA FILES AGAINST BLM GREAT DIVIDE PLAN
OF 4.6 MILLION ACRES, 98% OPENED TO DRILLING

BCA, NRDC and three other conservation groups filed suit on May 6, 2010 against the BLM's Rawlins/Great Divide resource management plan, which opened up 98% of 4.6 million acres, including lands in the Adobe Town, Wild Cow Creek, and Ferris Mountains proposed wilderness areas, to oil and gas development. Map of the Great Divide Area

Despite overwhelming public support for BCA's Western Heritage Alternative, which provided a blueprint for balancing low-impact drilling with the protection of key wildlife habitats and treasured landscapes, the BLM essentially handed the reins for these public lands over to the oil and gas industry. The legal challenge focuses on BLM's:

failure to examine environmentally sustainable alternatives,
failure to protect proposed wilderness,
failure to examine air quality problems, and
failure to measure the impact of industrial activities on climate change.

Joining BCA In the suit were the Natural Resources Defense Council, Wyoming Wilderness Association, Wyoming Outdoor Council, and The Wilderness Society. Click here to learn more about the suit.

BCA AMONG TOP 40 RATED GREEN NONPROFITS ON GREATNONPROFITS.ORG

In the 2010 Green Choice Campaign nearly 2,700 reviews were posted about 262 conservation nonprofits across the country, with BCA among the top - in fact, we're the only Wyoming group on the list, which includes large national organizations such as the Sierra Club and NRDC, and we rank #35.

Ken Driese, BCA volunteer, said in his review: "BCA is a smart, science-based environmental group that works tirelessly to protect the frequently maligned landscapes and ecosystems of Wyoming and bordering areas. The staff works all the time and is impressive in the amount of hard scientific research that they do to contest ecological unsustainable or unreasonable development in the region. They deserve a huge amount of credit for protecting Wyoming in the face of the relentless oil and gas industry and other industries that put profit before sustainability."

Thanks, Ken! And thank you to everyone who helped BCA win this honor by writing reviews. We deeply appreciate you taking the time to do so, as these reviews will be useful to us in many ways going forward. The full list of Top-Rated Green Nonprofits is available here. While this year's campaign has ended, your opportunity to give BCA your feedback has not. Log on anytime to tell your story of involvement with BCA staff, members, board or campaigns. Thanks for being an important part of a top green nonprofit.

ATV SPECIAL INTERESTS VOCAL AT FOREST SERVICE MEETINGS

The Rocky Mountain Region of the U.S. Forest Service held roundtable meetings on April 13, 2010, in Laramie, Wyoming, and April 14 in Cheyenne to discuss the development of a new rule that would guide how each National Forest develops long-term forest plans. John Persell, conservation law director for BCA, attended the Laramie and Cheyenne meetings, as well as the Second National Roundtable in Washington, D.C. April 20-21, 2010.

It became clear from these meetings that ATV companies and salespeople are organized and pushing for greater access to our public lands by motor vehicle, regardless of the fact that even current levels of impact aren't yet fully known. Other citizens and conservation groups were sparsely represented.

BCA seeks the requirement of thorough analyses in forest plans of the impacts caused by ATVs, and brought suggestions to the meeting about how the new rule should ensure viability of wildlife populations and health of ecosystems and watersheds. Persell also reminded the Forest Service that the long-term health of local economies can only result from the long-term health of our ecosystems.

These meetings are just a first step in the public participation process for the new rule. Later this year, the Forest Service plans to issue a proposed rule and will solicit public comments, aiming for a final rule by the end of 2011. In the coming months, conservationists will need to remain diligent in reminding the Forest Service of its duty to maintain diversity of plant and animal species in forest plans before sacrificing habitat to less suitable uses. BCA staff will review the proposed rule carefully, and ask for your help to ensure that the final rule offers meaningful, scientifically-sound protections for wildlife.

USFWS DENIES ENDANGERED SPECIES PROTECTION TO WYOMING POCKET GOPHER

In a shocking turn of events, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service denied a petition by BCA to protect the Wyoming pocket gopher under the Endangered Species Act. Two years of intensive field surveys were only able to find 31 individuals of the species, and virtually the entire known range of the Wyoming pocket gopher, stretching from the Atlantic Rim to Adobe Town in the southern Red Desert, is slated for full-field gas and coalbed methane development.

While the Fish and Wildlife Service acknowledged the extreme rarity of the pocket gopher and the fact that it is a genetically distinct species, the agency ruled that it could not determine that oil and gas development was a threat to its survival. Apparently, a pocket gopher crushed by a bulldozer or mangled by a drill bit is not faced with a "threat" to its well-being. BCA anticipates judicial review of the federal decision to leave the Wyoming pocket gopher unprotected will be forthcoming.

BLM WYOMING MAY GAS LEASE SALE ADDS INSULT TO INJURY - BCA PROTESTS

BCA recently filed a protest concerning dozens of parcels of land offered by the Wyoming BLM on May 11, 2010 in their oil and gas lease auction. BCA focused its protest on the adverse impacts drilling in these areas would have to the greater sage-grouse, Wyoming pocket gopher, and the Kinney Rim and Fuller Peak citizens' proposed wilderness areas.

The rules regarding the timing of drilling and the occupancy of the sites that were included for lands in sage-grouse habitat, supposedly to protect the grouse, have been scientifically shown NOT to prevent further population declines. This, just after the recent finding by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service that the grouse, already a "sensitive species," is warranted for protection under the Endangered Species Act, but precluded by other priorities. Some of the parcels even lie within Wyoming Governor Dave Freudenthal's recommended Core Habitat Areas, in which sage-grouse protection is supposed to be given higher importance than energy extraction.

Furthermore, the BLM has been fully informed of the geographic boundaries of citizen's proposed wilderness areas, making it disingenuous of the agency to offer them for development without a thorough evaluation by BLM of the areas' wilderness characteristics and appropriateness for inclusion in the Wilderness Preserve System.

If the BLM is unwilling to withdraw the protested lease parcels, BCA has asked them to conduct environmental analyses for each specific site where drilling could affect sage-grouse, Wyoming pocket gophers, and citizens' proposed wilderness areas. The Department of Interior promised such site-specific analysis when it announced it would reform BLM's oil and gas leasing policy earlier this year. Such reform has yet to come to fruition, so until it does, BCA will vigilantly protest all lease parcels that allow drilling to the detriment of sage-grouse, pocket gophers, and the wilderness characteristics of Kinney Rim and Fuller Peak.

If you want to do something about this, please consider a donation to BCA's work (click "donate") protecting Wyoming's wild deserts and grasslands.

SOUTH DAKOTANS - CELEBRATE ENDANGERED SPECIES DAY MAY 21 IN RAPID CITY

Join the celebration of Wind Cave National Park's contribution to black footed ferret recovery and South Dakota's Wildlife Diversity Program on Endangered Species Day! Enjoy free food, free goodies, and free admission in the LeCroix Room of the Rushmore Plaza Civic Center in Rapid City, South Dakota on Friday, May 21, 2010, from 6-9pm.

Information tables, food and a cash bar will be available from 6-9 p.m.,
the South Dakota Wildlife Diversity Presentation will be held at 7 p.m.,
a black footed ferret presentation with video footage will be held at 7:30 p.m., and
an awards presentation will commence at 8:15 p.m.

Please contact Lindsay by email or at 720-938-0788 to RSVP for food. This event is co-sponsored by BCA, and information about Sand Creek Roadless Area in the Black Hills, and the Very Rare or Uncommon petition to protect it, will be available at the info tables.