Biodiversity Conservation Alliance * Wyoming Outdoor Council * Wyoming AFL-CIO
Wyoming Wilderness Association * Natural Resources Defense Council

NEWS RELEASE

January 4, 2008

Proposed BLM Land Use Plan in Red Desert Pushes Drilling, Not Conservation

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RAWLINS – The BLM today released its Final Environmental Impact Statement for its revision of the Great Divide land-use plan, which covers some 4.6 million acres of public land and minerals in southeastern Wyoming managed by its Rawlins office, including the eastern half of the Red Desert. The new plan is heavily favors accelerated oil and gas development over conservation of lands and wildlife, with some 98% of the land area managed by BLM open to oil and gas development.

“While the people of Wyoming have been demanding more balance between protection and drilling the Red Desert, the BLM’s new plan is going in the opposite direction,” said Erik Molvar, Wildlife Biologist with Biodiversity Conservation Alliance. “Instead of setting aside special landscapes like Adobe Town and providing real protection for wildlife habitat, the BLM’s Preferred Alternative would ramp up gas drilling even more and convert some our best remaining strongholds for wildlife to high-intensity industrial use.”

This is an area rich in wildlife, particularly the eastern Red Desert and Atlantic Rim areas, and hunting, fishing, and wildlife viewing bring in $115 million annually to the Wyoming economy from the Great Divide planning area alone, according to the Wyoming Game and Fish Department.  It is also renowned for its vast wide open spaces, in areas like Wild Cow Creek which attract many recreationists seeking primitive adventure

“I am distressed by the lip service the BLM is giving to wildlife conservation,” said Mike Guy, a Casper resident who has hunted the Red Desert for 30 years. “Elk have been expanding their range in the Red Desert, but they need a half-mile cushion from roads and wells, and with all the drilling and road-building that’s proposed, it’ll be the end of elk expansion in the future and goodbye to these tenuous populations in the proposed development areas. It’s a real shame what’s happening out in the Red Desert right now, and as goes one species so will go the deer, antelope, sage grouse, songbirds and all other wildlife.  This is truly bad news for wildlife in this area.”

“There’s a real need to strengthen protections for the crucial big game and sage grouse habitats,” added Bruce Pendery of the Wyoming Outdoor Council. “The BLM should not continue to apply the same timing limitations that have been proven ineffective while ramping up oil and gas drilling. This can only harm wildlife populations and destroy hunting opportunities.”

Conservation groups joined with Wyoming residents and other members of the public in an overwhelming flood supporting The Western Heritage Alternative, a science-based blueprint for allowing development to move forward in a way that is compatible with the needs of wildlife and the public, but the BLM chose to disregard this alternative and did not study it in their EIS.

“The conservation community worked together with the public to offer an alternative that would balance oil and gas drilling with the need to protect wildlife habitats and special landscapes, and it was largely ignored,” said Pendery. “BLM’s proposed plan fails to meet the multiple use mandate that Wyoming citizens support, and the law requires.”

Protecting wilderness-quality lands was a major issue in the plan revision, and in the end, the BLM chose not to protect any of the lands outside Wilderness Study Areas established in 1980 that it classified as possessing wilderness characteristics, including large tracts of Adobe Town and a proposed addition to the Ferris Mountains WSA. Despite the recent designation of Adobe Town as Very Rare or Uncommon by the State of Wyoming, the BLM failed to withdraw the area from future oil and gas leasing and development, jeopardizing the values that the state had sought to protect.

"Given the immense outpouring of support from hunters, unions, religious organizations and the public for the Adobe Town wilderness, we are very disappointed that the BLM will not prevent future oil and gas leasing in this area," said Liz Howell of the Wyoming Wilderness Association. "The BLM designated the area for recreational use, but failed to prevent or sunset industrial development to protect the wilderness qualities. Seriously, no one wants to hike or hunt in an oil field."

The Powder Rim, a juniper-clad uplift along the Colorado border, received no consideration as an Area of Critical Environmental Concern (ACEC), despite its overlapping big game crucial winter ranges and migration corridors, Cherokee Trail sections and Native American pictographs, and rare birds and plants. “This area probably has more qualifications as an ACEC than any other spot in Wyoming, yet the BLM refused to even consider protecting it,” noted Molvar.

In some of the few bright spots in an otherwise bleak plan, lands proposed as wilderness or Areas of Critical Environmental Concern did get strong protections in Wild Cow Creek, the Pedro Mountains, and the Shirley Mountains under other designations.

The new plan does not address the controversy over oil and gas leasing in the Upper North Platte Valley, where proposed gas leases were recently pulled in the face of strong local opposition.
“Hunting, recreation, and tourism make up our #2 industry in Wyoming, bringing $1.8 billion into our economy. And it’s an important part of the quality of life for everyone who lives here,” said Kim Floyd of the Wyoming AFL-CIO. “This plan is another prime example of how the political hacks in Washington are ignoring the voice of the public and selling out our public lands to the oil and gas industry. It’s bad business for Wyoming, it’s bad for Wyoming’s wildlife, and it’s bad for America.”

Any member of the public who submitted an oral or written comment on the Draft EIS can file a protest against the BLM’s proposed plan for the area; protests must be filed by February 4th.

A background fact sheet on the provisions of the Final EIS and proposed plan is available online at
http://www.voiceforthewild.org/greatdivide/pubs/FEISGreatDividefactsheet.doc.