Energy Development Harming Fish and Wildlife, Sportsmen’s Access on Public Lands, TRCP Partners Tell Congress

Press Room

Press Release

For Immediate Release
March 27, 2007
For more information contact:
Tim Zink, (202) 654-4625

Energy Development Harming Fish and Wildlife, Sportsmen’s Access on Public Lands, TRCP Partners Tell Congress

WASHINGTON - Accelerating energy development on western public lands is causing serious declines in fish and wildlife populations and opportunities for hunters and anglers, four partners of the Theodore Roosevelt Conservation Partnership (TRCP) today testified before the House Committee on Natural Resources.

At a full committee oversight hearing entitled “Access Denied: The Growing Conflict Between Fishing, Hunting, and Energy Development on Federal Lands,” Steve Williams, President & CEO of the Wildlife Management Institute and a TRCP Board Member, testified to the committee: “As a hunter, angler and wildlife conservationist, I am troubled by the pace of leasing, exploration and development occurring throughout large portions of public land in the West. More troubling than the pace of development, however, is the manner in which it is conducted.”

Dr. Rollin Sparrowe, Chair of the TRCP Fish, Wildlife, and Energy Working Group, echoed this sentiment, testifying: “Proof that fish and wildlife are receiving little protection lies in past and future actions by the Bureau of land Management. Pressures to accelerate approval of applications for permits to drill (APD) and otherwise facilitate development have led to virtual abandonment of other land management responsibilities for wildlife on many BLM trust lands. BLM resource managers have been reprogrammed to assist in processing APDs as their first, and, in some instances, their only priority. Funding and staffing have been shifted away from the multiple-use mandate we expect from the agency under its authorizing legislation.”

Sparrowe continued: “Of course, much of this shift has been responding to directives from the administration and Congress, but the BLM seems to ‘go the extra mile’ in unique interpretations of policy and law. ‘Minerals trump everything’ has been repeatedly said by BLM staff, even in public meetings, while top administrators have extolled their great attention to ‘balanced development’ even while directives have been issued to BLM staff stating the contrary. … Specific wildlife resources are suffering from this neglect.”

Mr. William Hite, the General President of the United Association of Journeymen and Apprentices in the Plumbing and Pipe Fitting Industry and a TRCP partner, told committee members, “If we want the public to support expanded development in the future, especially in the energy sector, then we need to look at our impact on the water, land and air, and be ready to embrace a better, smarter way when it presents itself.”

The better, smarter way to develop energy on public lands, these TRCP partners testified, is to follow the recommendations of the TRCP FACTS campaign, which calls on the federal government and industry to increase funding, accountability, coordination, transparency and science when making decisions on energy development on the public lands that belong to all Americans.

In closing, Kinsey Robinson, International President of the United Union of Roofers, Waterproofers and Allied Workers and a TRCP partner, said, “We ask that this committee heed the concerns of those Americans who wish to preserve the legacy of open lands and waters for those millions of hunters, fishermen, sportsmen and women who share in the love of our great outdoors.”

The Theodore Roosevelt Conservation Partnership is a coalition of leading hunting, fishing and conservation organizations and individual partners working together to guarantee access to places to hunt and fish, conserve fish and wildlife habitat, and increase funding for conservation.