TRCP Protests Wyoming Energy Leases
News
for Immediate Release
July 22, 2008
Contact: Katie McKalip, 406-240-9262, kmckalip@trcp.org
TRCP Protests Wyoming Energy Leases
Popular hunting
and fishing destination slated for drilling under federal plan;
threats to fish, wildlife populations drive sportsmen’s protest
WASHINGTON – Concerns for the future of numerous game species and a popular hunting, fishing and recreation area caused the Theodore Roosevelt Conservation Partnership to formally protest an upcoming Bureau of Land Management energy lease sale in Wyoming, the sportsmen’s group announced today. The Aug. 5 sale will offer close to 170,000 acres of federal public lands to the energy industry for oil and gas development.
The TRCP protest covers approximately 110,000 acres comprising big-game migration corridors and crucial winter range, important sage grouse habitat and sensitive trout fisheries. About 6,700 acres are located on Little Mountain, south of Rock Springs and near Flaming Gorge Reservoir in southern Sweetwater County. The Little Mountain area, renowned among sportsmen and recreationists, has been the recipient of nearly $1.5 million in habitat restoration projects funded by federal and state agencies, including the BLM and Wyoming Game and Fish Department, and conservation groups.
“The federal decision to lease Little Mountain to the energy industry takes sportsmen’s sweat equity and public dollars and simply throws them away,” said Dwayne Meadows, a TRCP field representative. “This part of Wyoming offers once-in-a-lifetime hunting and fishing opportunities and provides irreplaceable big-game, sage grouse and Colorado River cutthroat trout habitat.”
Energy development can have wide-ranging impacts on habitat use and survival of numerous game species. Recent research on sage grouse, currently being considered by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service for protection under the Endangered Species Act, identifies population declines with energy development activities. On June 30, the TRCP and North American Grouse Partnership formally requested that the Department of the Interior undertake conservation measures for sage grouse habitats on BLM-administered lands. Better management of sage grouse during energy development on federal public lands could avert an endangered listing of the popular upland game bird.
“Over the past decade, the BLM has sold more than 12 million acres of public lands in Wyoming to the energy industry,” continued Meadows, a lifelong Wyoming hunter and angler, “and the agency persists in following practices that science shows adversely affect sage grouse. Its actions fail to serve the multiple users of our public lands – a range of interests that the BLM is required to consider in its decision making.”
“The Little Mountain energy leases perfectly symbolize our broken federal energy policy,” said TRCP Energy Initiative Manager Steve Belinda. “Here we have an area of such high value for fish, wildlife and sportsmen that numerous stakeholders, including the BLM, have dedicated funds to its conservation. Yet now that same federal agency is opening these prized lands for oil and gas drilling, practices that most certainly will compromise their important natural resources and affect our ability to enjoy them.
“The TRCP supports responsible development of our public energy resources that sustains valuable fish and wildlife populations,” continued Belinda, a former federal biologist. “We stand ready to work with the BLM in forging a common-sense approach to public lands drilling that ensures that the needs of users, including industry, sportsmen and everyday Americans, are met, now and in the future.”
The TRCP believes that to better balance the concerns of fish and wildlife in the face of accelerating energy development, federal land management agencies must follow the conservation tenets outlined in the FACTS for Fish and Wildlife.
Inspired by the legacy of Theodore Roosevelt, the TRCP is a coalition of organizations and grassroots partners working together to preserve the traditions of hunting and fishing.
Return to TRCP home.
 |
 |
 |
