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January 29, 2009

Wyoming group takes challenge to appeals court to protect sage grouse from CBM drilling
in Powder River Basin

 

LARAMIE – A Wyoming conservation group is taking a legal challenge to the 10th Circuit Court of Appeals to protect sage grouse and black-tailed prairie dogs from coalbed methane drilling in the Powder River Basin. The case, brought by Biodiversity Conservation Alliance and nature photographer George Wuerthner, appeals a ruling by Judge Johnson of the U.S. District Court of Wyoming that cleared the way for large-scale coalbed methane drilling on the Wyoming side of the Powder River Basin.

“This case is all about restoring balance between energy development and native wildlife in the Powder River Basin,” said Erik Molvar, Wildlife Biologist with Biodiversity Conservation Alliance. “We’ve seen dramatic declines in sage grouse and prairie dog populations symptomatic of a broader ecosystem collapse that affects all native wildlife. Fortunately, a common sense solution exists — a phased development management program which would provide natural gas but protect native wildlife populations and habitat by controlling the timing and location of development. Unfortunately, our federal land managers haven’t exercised much common sense and allowed uncontrolled, unbalanced development that has pushed native wildlife, and the sage grouse in particular, to the brink of extinction.”

In an identical case brought by the same groups for coalbed methane drilling on the Montana side of the Powder River Basin, the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals upheld lower court decisions which required BLM to go back to the drawing board and consider phased development as a means of balancing energy development with the West’s native wildlife heritage.

“The situation in Montana is virtually identical to the situation in Wyoming, and we see no reason why Wyoming should be turned into a sacrifice zone for energy development when common sense solutions were required just across the border in Montana,” said Erik Schlenker-Goodrich of the Western Environmental Law Center, who is representing the plaintiffs. “BLM likes to say that phased development is already happening because developers started in the eastern part of the Basin and are industrializing their way westward. Frankly, that’s an appalling statement. Real, science-based phased development entails the conscious protection of wildlife. BLM’s focus on false propaganda and the unconscious acceptance of a slow, creeping death for wildlife isn’t phased development.”

According to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, significant biological information has been received indicating that both the greater sage grouse and the black-tailed prairie dog may need to be listed under the Endangered Species Act (ESA), and the agency is undertaking a detailed Status Review for each species en route to a final listing decision. According to the law, when a species becomes endangered across a significant portion of its range, it must be listed as “Threatened” under the ESA. The fate of sage grouse, in particular, is increasingly at the center of the debate. 

 

“The Powder River Basin’s grouse populations are the linchpin that links sage grouse populations in Montana and Canada with the sage grouse strongholds of the Red Desert and the rest of its worldwide range,” remarked Erik Molvar, wildlife biologist with Biodiversity Conservation Alliance. “What happens to these populations will be an important factor in determining whether – and for how long – more intensive protections for sage grouse would be required under the Endangered Species Act.  It’s unfortunate that BLM has resisted common sense solutions and put the people of Wyoming in this position. But our hope is that the courts will level the playing field and give us all a second chance to balance energy development with native wildlife before it’s too late.”