NEWS RELEASE

Contact Information

June 20, 2007

Conservation Groups Seek Stay of Atlantic Rim
Coalbed Methane Drilling

LARAMIE – A coalition of seven conservation groups today filed an appeal of the BLM’s Atlantic Rim coalbed methane project, which authorized 2,000 wells to be drilled across 270,000 acres at the eastern edge of the Red Desert. The appeal, filed with the Interior Board of Land Appeals in Washington, also included a request to Stay the project during the course of the legal proceedings.

The Atlantic Rim is an area of extremely high-value wildlife habitat, with one of the largest remaining sage grouse breeding and nesting areas in the state as well as habitat for the rare native wildlife such as the pygmy rabbit, Wyoming pocket gopher, mountain plover, ferruginous hawk, and flannelmouth sucker. The project area also is one of the most popular hunting areas in the state, and includes crucial winter range and migration corridors for elk, mule deer, and pronghorn.

State and federal wildlife agencies, conservation groups, and the public all put the BLM on notice that the Atlantic Rim was an area of extremely important wildlife habitat,” said Erik Molvar, Wildlife Biologist with Biodiversity Conservation Alliance. “But instead of making an effort to balance drilling with the needs of wildlife and public recreation, the agency plowed ahead with a heavy-impact drilling plan that will permit drilling at 8 wells per square mile, converting the open spaces of the Atlantic Rim into an industrial zone devoid of habitat value or recreational use.”

The appeal attacks the BLM’s failure to consider more balanced alternatives, and points out the agency’s failure to examine impacts to sensitive resources, ranging from ignoring key wildlife species to failing to examine the danger posed by methane seeps that have cropped up in the area and using air quality modeling that has been condemned as obsolete by the Environmental Protection Agency. The appeal also belabors BLM for failing to live up to conservation obligations in the Great Divide Resource Management Plan and approving an action that will contribute to the need for Endangered Species listing fort the sage grouse, Wyoming pocket gopher, and other rare species, in violation of the BLM’s Sensitive Species regulations.

“As our wildlands get turned into drilling fields, we still have places like Wild Cow Creek to preserve that ecological heritage,” said Liz Howell, Director of the Wyoming Wilderness Association. “The western portion of Wild Cow Creek needs to be protected from coalbed methane drilling.”

“The BLM is pushing ahead with oil and gas development in the wildlife-rich Atlantic Rim area with little consideration to protecting these resources that are treasured by hunters and other outdoors people,” said Bruce Pendery of the Wyoming Outdoor Council. “Our appeal is an attempt to get BLM to do it right rather than pushing ahead with drilling no matter what the costs.”

Groups filing the appeal include Biodiversity Conservation Alliance, Wyoming Outdoor Council, Wyoming Wilderness Association, Western Watersheds Project, Colorado Environmental Coalition, Center for Native Ecosystems, and The Wilderness Society. The full appeal and Petition for Stay is available for review from Biodiversity Conservation Alliance upon request.