Draft Maps and Map Descriptions
Prepared by Biodiversity Conservation Alliance
June 5, 2001
Biodiversity Conservation Alliance has prepared a series of 6 maps, 5 of which
show in various ways the sensitive lands in Wyoming which are
threatened by the Bush administration’s energy policy (and particularly
those portions of the policy dealing with the public lands). The
sixth
map shows the general location of coal, natural gas, and oil in Wyoming.
We have not yet prepared a map showing the land ownership, but we
can provide that if you need one.
Note from Jeff K: One aspect of energy development
in Wyoming that is NOT depicted on the maps but which is extremely
important to me is the continuing loss of wildness and open space.
When most people think of Wyoming, what comes to mind are big open
spaces with little human impacts or industrial development. These
are difficult to show on a map, and they are not strictly environmental
quality issues like clean air and water or the health of wildlife populations.
Nonetheless, it is this openness and wildness that defines
Wyoming to many. The on-going explosive expansion of energy development
in the state has the potential (and high likelihood) to eliminate or
greatly reduce these very qualities. It could change Wyoming
forever by the addition of thousands of miles of new roads, thousands of
well
pads, pipelines, powerlines, compressor stations and tanks, and high
levels of motor vehicle traffic. There may not be many people or many
cities in Wyoming during or after the boom, but there definitely would
be a great deal of industrial “development” and corresponding loss of
wildness and open vistas.
This map shows 3 large colored polygons: the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem,
the Powder River Basin, and the Red Desert (with the Jack
Morrow Hills study area from the BLM highlighted within). These
are the areas considered by the Wyoming conservation community to have
the combined highest biological/wildlands values AND the most threats
from the Bush energy policy. The boundaries approximate and should
be used for general information only. Not all of the lands inside
the polygons are pristine. Inside each of the 3 areas there are portions
that
have been subjected to high levels of mineral development, road building,
mining, etc. However, each area still possesses outstanding wild
lands and wildlife/fish resources, has significant portions in an undeveloped
or unindustrialized state, and is a conservation target for
concerned citizens in Wyoming.
It is important to note that public lands in other areas of the state
are also threatened by the Bush energy policy but are not shown on the
map.
For example, the Adobetown potential Wilderness southwest of Rawlins
and southeast of Rock Springs is a large complex of incredible
hoodoos, beautiful badlands, and great vistas. It is threatened
by gas development and is being impacted right now. Although Adobetown
is
over 80,000 acres in size, it is not a large “landscape” compared to
the three shown on the map. Thus while protecting places like Adobetown
is very important to us, it is not a large continuous region and therefore
is not shown on this general map. However, the key central portion of
the Adobetown area is shown on the other maps described below.
These two maps are identical except that Map 2 includes the National Parks
and designated Forest Service Wilderness Areas, while Map 3
omits these areas. Both maps show most of the large landscapes
in Wyoming that possess high biological value, wildlife and rare plant,
roadless and undisturbed lands (potential Wilderness), and the like.
Please note, however, that these maps do NOT show the important big
game habitat. Instead, big game information is shown on Map 4.
We inadvertently omitted the names of the National Forests and the Thunder
Basin National Grassland. Forests shown are the Bridger-Teton,
Shoshone, Bighorn, Medicine Bow, and Black Hills. We can provide a locator
map for these if you desire.
Here is a brief description of each type of item on Maps 2 and 3:
· Citizens Proposed BLM Wilderness – These are the boundaries
of the 1994 Wyoming citizens’ proposal for Wilderness on BLM lands.
The
total acreage is about 1.1 million acres. The citizens’ proposal
was much more accurate, complete, and inclusive than the BLM inventory
(see
Wilderness Study Area description below). However, even the citizens
missed some important and outstanding wilderness-quality lands
during the field work for the 1994 proposal. Currently Biodiversity
Associates is re-inventorying the BLM lands in Wyoming for potential
Wilderness, and we are finding significant new acreage. We expect
to add about 50,000 to 100,000 acres to the existing citizens proposal
through our field inventory during the next two field years.
Those portions of these units which are NOT Wilderness Study Areas have
no
substantive protection from industrial development.
· Roadless Areas (USFS) – These are the U.S. Forest Service inventoried
roadless areas from the Clinton administration’s roadless area
conservation environmental impact statement. As with the BLM
inventory, citizens have knowledge of wilderness-quality land omitted or
left
out by the Forest Service. However, we do not have a statewide
map of these areas of disagreement. Only for the Medicine Bow National
Forest in southern/eastern Wyoming and the Thunder Basin National Grassland
are citizens’ areas shown. For all other forests, the official
USFS boundaries are shown. Note that these are administrative designations,
not legislative, and hence are subject to the prerogatives of the
current administration. Thus these areas are probably not safe
from industrial development.
· Conservation Sites (TNC) – These are “conservation sites” from
completed and draft ecoregional plans prepared by The Nature
Conservancy. Note that these sites are NOT solely public lands.
Conservation sites are defined in this way by TNC: “In each
ecoregional
plan, the goal has been to conserve the viable native species and natural
communities (called “conservation targets”) by identifying certain
areas on the ground (“a portfolio of sites”) which, if protected, would
provide the greatest protection for all the plant and animal species of
the
entire ecoregion.” Data were taken from these Ecoregional Plan titles:
“Wyoming Basins,” “Ecoregional Conservation in the Northern Great
Plains Steppe,” “Utah-Wyoming Rocky Mountains,” and “Central Shortgrass
Prairie.” Please note that the “Utah-Wyoming Rocky
Mountains” plan and boundaries are DRAFT versions and are subject to
change before the final document is released. Each of the TNC sites
has a narrative description that is available in the ecoregional plans.
We can provide these to you. Most of these sites have little or no
protection from industrial development.
· Wilderness Study Areas (USFS) – These few Forest Service areas
were designated by the U.S. Congress for additional study and analysis
during forest planning, including study of each area’s suitability
and unsuitability for designation as Wilderness. These studies will take
place
during revision of the respective Forest Plans.
· Wilderness Study Areas (BLM) – These are areas administratively
designated by BLM for consideration as possible Wilderness. They
were
designated during the BLM wilderness inventory and study process of
the 1980’s and early 1990’s. BLM has made specific recommendations
for designation of all, part, or none of each WSA. In many cases,
BLM has failed to recommend all or significant parts of areas possessing
outstanding wilderness qualities. And BLM failed to designate
several key areas as WSAs. We show the boundaries of the WSA but
do not
show the recommended vs non-recommended portions of each WSA.
There are existing mineral leases in some WSAs.
· Research Natural Areas (USFS) - These are administratively
designated US Forest Service lands “in which natural conditions are maintained
insofar as possible… by allowing natural and physical processes to
prevail without human intervention….” They are designated “to
provide a
spectrum of relative undisturbed areas representing a wide range of
natural variability within important natural ecosystems and environments…
and areas with special or unique characteristics or scientific importance.”
We use Forest Service boundaries but we also include some areas
being studied for possible RNA designation on the Medicine Bow NF and
Thunder Basin National Grassland.
· ACEC (BLM) – These are BLM public lands administratively designated
“for special management attention to protect and prevent irreparable
damage to important historic, cultural, or scenic values, fish and
wildlife resources, or other natural systems or processes….”
· National Wildlife Refuge - These are “lands and waters
for the conservation, management, and where appropriate, restoration of
the fish,
wildlife, and plant resources and their habitats…” managed by the U.S.
Fish and Wildlife. Rules, regulations, and level of protection vary.
· Wilderness – (Map 2 only) Congressionally designated Wilderness
areas. Direct impacts from energy development would likely be few,
but
indirect impacts (air quality and visibility, impacts to wildlife by
industrial development outside the Wilderness border if the given populations
inhabit both Wilderness and non-Wilderness lands, limits to future
expansion of some imperiled species, etc.) could be significant.
· National Parks – (Map 2 only).
Caveats - These sensitive area maps are not complete representations
of the outstanding and extensive wild lands and wildlife habitat in
Wyoming. Instead, given the lack of time to gather information,
we show only the larger and more extensive areas with wildlife, rare plant,
and
wilderness values. Important areas or values not shown on the
map are: additions to citizens’ proposed BLM wilderness resulting from
our
inventories in 2000 and 2001; citizens’ proposed Wilderness on Forests
where citizens’ have expanded USFS units or added new units; many
rare plant sites; wetlands and outstanding national resource waters;
imperiled fish populations; raptor nests; sage grouse leks and other
habitat; prairie dog colonies and potential black-footed ferret habitat;
non-wilderness scenic areas; historic and cultural sites outside of the
Jack Morrow Hills; and much more.
This map shows crucial range (and severe winter relief range) and birthing
grounds for elk, mule deer, and pronghorn antelope. Crucial habitat
is “the determining factor in a population’s ability to maintain itself
at a certain level.” Habitat not considered “crucial” or severe winter
relief is
not shown on the map. Thus spring/summer/fall, winter/yearling, and
noncrucial winter habitat are not shown. These data were obtained
from
Wyoming Game and Fish Department. Also shown are big game migration
routes, but ONLY for the northwestern portion of the state from
Yellowstone Lake to Kemmerer. Data were not available for migration
routes in the remainder of the state. The shown migration routes were
provided by Wyoming Wildlife Federation. To develop the migration
route information, the Federation used 9 different technical reports and
books from Wyoming Game and Fish Department, universities, and other
sources. We can provide a list of these sources if requested.
This map is an attempt to combine areas from Maps 3 and 4, and to display
all the sensitive/important areas in a single gray shade. Thus all
the
sensitive areas from Map 3, and all the important big game crucial
and winter range from Map 4, are shown in grey. Migration routes
for Big
Game is not shown.
This map shows oil and gas basins, coal basins, a catch-all oil and gas
potential category called “oil and gas habitat,” and existing or permitted
oil and gas wells. The well data include shut in, abandoned,
existing, and non-yet-drilled but permitted wells, to the best of our knowledge.
We
currently are refining this map and hope to have a more useful version
in a week or so. Basins and “habitat” data are adapted from the
Wyoming Oil and Gas Resource Assessment Mapper at the University of
Wyoming (www.wims.uwyo.edu). Source data for the UW mapper
are from government reports named on the map. Well data is from WY
Oil and Gas Conservation Commission.
--
Jeff Kessler
Biodiversity Conservation Alliance
PO Box 6032
Laramie, WY 82073
(307) 742-7978
