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Energy Development Impact On Fish and Wildlife Not Dealt With In BLM Budget

Press Room

Press Release

For Immediate Release
May 3, 2006
For more information contact:
George Cooper, (202) 508-3421

Energy Development Impact On Fish and Wildlife Not Dealt With In BLM Budget

Washington, DC – A group of hunting, fishing and conservation groups concerned with expanded energy development on federal public land today weighed in on funding shortfalls in the proposed Bureau of Land Management’s (BLM) Fiscal Year 2007 Budget. That budget is currently under final review by the appropriate subcommittees in the House and Senate.

In the letter (click here to view) to Senator Conrad Burns, Chairman of the Senate Interior and Related Agencies Appropriations Subcommittee, and the Ranking Member of that subcommittee,  Senator Byron Dorgan and to Charles Taylor, Chairman of the House Interior, Environment and Related Agencies Appropriations Subcommittee and the Ranking Member of that Subcommittee, Congressman Norman Dicks, the group specifically contends that BLM funding levels being contemplated are inadequate to properly manage fish and wildlife habitats on BLM lands.  

The proposed BLM budget from the Department of the Interior requests $25.4 million in new funding for the BLM’s Oil and Gas Program, including $9.2 million for expediting energy permits but there is no new funding proposed for such BLM programs as Riparian Management and Wildlife and Fisheries. In the letter, the signing groups state, “Rather than asking for significant increases only in funding for expediting energy related permits, we believe that commensurate attention should be paid to insure that there is adequate staff and resources in place to properly manage fish and wildlife habitats and to mitigate for impacts from expanded energy development.”

The letter goes on to point out, “In recent years and in response to the demand for energy permits and subsequent workload, the BLM has re-directed resources from other programs (either through funding shifts or re-directing work of resource specialists to work on energy permits), including fish and wildlife programs.” The group concludes, “We believe that in order to deal appropriately with the expanded development of energy resources, wildlife and fisheries resources need more attention, not less.” 

Speaking to the interests of sportsmen and women, the letter notes, “Hunters and anglers realize that our public lands can be tapped to help meet the Nation’s energy needs, and that energy extraction is an important part of the BLM’s role in managing public lands.  Sportsmen and women also consider fish and wildlife to be important natural resources and believe the BLM should always make management of fish and wildlife and their habitat a top priority.”

Groups signing the letter include: American Sportsfishing Association, Association of Fish and Wildlife Agencies, Bear Trust International, Campfire Club of America, Izaak Walton League of America, North American Grouse Partnership, Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation, Theodore Roosevelt Conservation Partnership, Trout Unlimited, and the Wildlife Management Institute.

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