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Tell WGFD No Unregulated Shooting of Wolves in Wyoming!
The Wyoming Game and Fish Department is working with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to craft a state management package for wolves that would allow Endangered Species Act protections to be lifted across the state.
Unfortunately, the state is still clinging to the "dual classification" scheme in which wolves would be managed as "trophy game," with set seasons and limits on shooting, in the lands surrounding Yellowstone National Park, but be classified as "predatory animals" elsewhere, with no limit on when and how many wolves could be shot. This would create a free-fire zone across most of Wyoming, where wolf shooting (it could only be called hunting if the participants ate what they killed) would be completely unregulated, and the Game and Fish Department would have no way of knowing how many wolves were even being shot each year.
In contrast to wildlife management, this lack of any pretense of management amounts to gross negligence and dereliction of duty.
Tell the Game and Fish Department that the most they should allow is to manage wolves as "trophy game" statewide, so that the Game and Fish Department must set quotas and seasons for when and how many wolves can be killed.
Mail your comments by Friday, September 9th to:
Wolf Plan Comments
Wyoming Game and Fish Department
5400 Bishop Blvd.
Cheyenne, WY 82006
Fax: 307-777-4650
Check your BCA Wolf Plan email ALERT for more info.
Court Dismisses Jonah Lawsuit
Just before oral arguments were set to be heard, the 10th Circuit Court of Appeals dismissised BCA's lawsuit challenging the extreme density drilling in the Jonah Field on procedural grounds. The Casper attorney who represented BCA early in the case filed the appeal of the lower court ruling one day after the 60-day appeal period expired, due to confusion over electronic filing deadlines; while the lower court granted an extension, the appeals court overturned the extension of time at the request of the BLM and industry lawyers.
We are disappointed that the court let the BLM off on a technicality, and failed to reach the merits of the case. However, it appears that the oil industry got the point: Since our lawsuit, the industry has never attempted to get approval for drilling this dense (64 to 128 wells per square mile), and EnCana, the Canadian company who drilled the Jonah Field, is now proposing to use directional drilling and well clustering for its Normally Pressured Lance Project, with 3,500 wells proposed to be drilled into the same geologic target right next to the Jonah Field.
Anti-Prairie Dog Politics Halts Thunder Basin Prairie Dog Relocation Effort
After two years of unprecedented success, anti-prairie dog forces have halted prairie dog relocation progress.
In 2010 BCA, Defenders of Wildlife, World Wildlife Fund and the Prairie Dog Coalition of the Humane Society of the United States partnered with Forest Service, US Fish and Wildlife Service, and the Wyoming Game & Fish Department in a black-tailed prairie dog relocation effort that resulted in the successful relocation of 550 individuals, saving them from poisoning by ranchers. The goal of this work is to create conditions on the grasslands that will support the reintroduction of black-footed ferrets and a host of other prairie dog dependent wildlife.
So far this year the effort has accomplished the following:
- relocation of 349 prairie dogs away from private land
- dusting of 1,997 acres and 43,140 burrows against plague
- mapping of 8,648 acres, of which 5,600 acres are in the 3.63 (ferret area)
- burning of 4,000 acres of old pdog colonies to improve habitat for pdog, plover, burrowing owl, and other associated species.
- Counted 32 burrowing owls
- counted 20 mountain plover
- Construction of 2 raptor perches in pdog town next to private land to help with boundry control
- Construction 8 new shooting closure signs
Until Converse and Weston County Commissioners began to wrongly claim that the Forest Service had not consulted with them on the prairie dog relocation program, the relocation team was planning on continuing efforts throughout this summer, hoping that the reintroduction of black-footed ferrets could begin soon.
Despite having played by the rules to get this close to black-footed ferret reintroduction, under pressure from the anti-wildlife politicos of Converse and Weston Counties, the Forest Service is caving in to their demand to stop everything. BCA has been a strong supporter of this effort and we applaud the impressive efforts of our conservation partners and the agencies to date. We will continue fight for the wonderful wildlife of the Thunder Basin National Grasslands.
Samson Abandons Adobe Town Drilling Project
Just last week, we received notification that the BLM had moved to dismiss a legal challenge led by BCA and NRDC against the Desolation Road project in northern Adobe Town, on the grounds that Samson Resources had cancelled its remaining drilling permit for the project. The initial test well for the project produced no gas, and given the major opposition that BCA has organizied in the legal arena around this project, Samson has apparently decided that drilling elsewhere would be more profitable. We will continue to do our utmost to demonstrate to industry that drilling in Wyoming's crown jewel landscapes is not worth the cost.
Black Hills National Forest Claims it will Save the
Forest with a Massive 325,000 Acre Logging Project
This forest-wide logging project includes what will look like clear-cuts, and many other kinds of logging. With no sound science to back them, the Forest Service says it can control mountain pine beetles if they do the following:
~ burn tens of thousands of acres of forest
~ spray pesticides over large areas of forest using airplanes and helicopters
~ log vast portions of the forest
~ build more logging roads
Tell the Black Hills Forest Service
> STOP destroying wildlife habitat and damaging watersheds and streams by logging in the name of beetle control.
> Limit this ineffective and ridiculously large and destructive project to one it can actually afford to do and one that will do the most good for the Forest and private landowners adjacent to the public forest, while minimizing damage to wildlife habitats.
> Limit this project to one that treats the Wildland Urban Interface Zone (WUI Zone) which means thinning only to a distance of no more 1/4 mile from homes and private structures. Experts agree that generally the thinning of trees in a 200 foot "ignition zone" is sufficient to protect private landowner properties if they have done their part to make their property "Firewise."
> STOP wasting valuable tax dollars and human resources on projects that don't do what the Service claims they will do.
Send your comments by September 7th to:
Craig Bobzien, Forest Supervisor
Black Hills National Forest
2014 N. Main Street
Spearfish, SD 57783
or by email to: comments-rocky-mountain-black-hills@fs.fed.us.
BCA Invites You to Celebrate Our New Office with Us
Open House
Monday ~ September 19, 2011
6pm ~ 8pm
412 S. 2nd Street In Laramie
(Next door to the Prairie Rose Cafe)
Come As You Are
Enjoy FREE Beverages and Refreshments
Meet BCA Staff & Members
See "Old" Buddies and Make New Friends!
Thanks for using your voice for the wild!
Biodiversity Conservation Alliance
P.O. Box 1512, Laramie, WY 82073
(307) 742-7978 - jennifer@voiceforthewild.org
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