News for Immediate Release
Oct. 24, 2007
Contact: Dwayne Meadows, 307-760-6802, dmeadows@trcp.org

TRCP Protests Federal Energy Leases in Colorado

Group says BLM’s approach is based on incomplete planning, would damage critical big-game habitat

WASHINGTON – In its ongoing effort to ensure responsible development of America’s energy resources, the Theodore Roosevelt Conservation Partnership (TRCP) today announced that it has filed a formal protest of Bureau of Land Management (BLM) plans to lease areas of critical wildlife habitat in Colorado. The national conservation coalition’s protest covers 131 parcels encompassing 165,000 acres, currently slated for auction on Nov. 8.

Only weeks earlier, the BLM cancelled a similar sale in Utah, which would have opened vast tracts of that state’s fabled mule deer habitat to oil and gas development. The Utah sale was cancelled, according to the state BLM office, so that the agency could “consider new wildlife habitat information available from the State of Utah, Division of Wildlife Resources.” It was the first time in 25 years that the BLM had cancelled a lease sale. Over the summer, the agency withdrew thousands of acres from leasing in Utah and Montana following protests by the TRCP and other sportsmen’s groups.

“The TRCP supports energy development but wants to make sure it’s done right,” said Dwayne Meadows, field representative for the TRCP’s Energy Initiative. “The fact that the Colorado Division of Wildlife has expressed serious concerns about this particular sale should be a wake-up call to the BLM.

“The areas proposed for lease are located on prime habitat and migration routes for big-game animals, including elk, mule deer, pronghorn and moose,” continued Meadows. “In Utah, concern over the impacts of energy development on habitat caused the BLM to cancel a lease sale. The agency should exercise similar discretion in Colorado.”

“We’ve already protested two lease sales in Colorado this year and have yet to receive a response from the BLM regarding either of them,” said TRCP President and CEO George Cooper. “In this case, the agency wants to lease the headwaters of both the Colorado and the North Platte rivers. Energy development in these areas is not proven to be compatible with current uses. Without further analysis and resource protections, it could severely impact fish and wildlife resources and, consequently, both Colorado’s sporting traditions and its economy. The BLM’s actions are not consistent with its multiple-use mandate.”

“The BLM is basing plans for this sale on a resource assessment that’s 15 years out of date,” said Steve Belinda, manager of TRCP’s energy initiative. “Leases entail a contractual obligation for development, so the time to plan for that development – using current, peer-reviewed science – is before the lands are auctioned.

“The BLM is currently conducting an updated assessment of the region. Delaying this lease sale until it has been completed will enable our country to develop our energy resources responsibly, in a way that considers the needs of fish and wildlife,” Belinda concluded.

Recent research concluded that energy development has an immediate and significant effect on mule deer use of winter ranges and overall populations. 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.