Better Funding Needed To Address Fish and Wildlife Energy Development Impacts
Press Room
Press Release
For Immediate Release
March 1, 2006
For more information contact:
George Cooper, (202) 508-3421
Better Funding Needed To Address Fish and Wildlife Energy Development Impacts
TRCP Energy and Wildlife Working Group Urges Immediate Attention to Fish and Wildlife Needs
Attention this week in Congress is focused on Interior Department funding, and in particular, funding related to energy development on Bureau of Land Management (BLM) public lands. As funding matters are contemplated, it is very important to note that the BLM currently lacks the resources to adequately address energy development impacts on fish and wildlife.
Interior Secretary Gale Norton is testifying on the Bush administration's $10.5 billion budget request for 2007 Interior Department funding before the House Interior Appropriations Subcommittee today and the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Subcommittee tomorrow.
It is clear to us that there has not been enough money provided in the BLM budget to ensure that exploration, extraction and other activities on BLM land associated with developing energy resources can be conducted in a manner that will not have lasting negative effects on fish and wildlife populations and crucial habitat in the Rocky Mountain West. The proposed 2007 Interior budget increases spending on Bureau of Land Management energy programs again this year (by $25.4 million) but does not dedicate significant new funds for the personnel and resources needed to keep up with the expansion of oil and gas development on BLM land.
BLM has not been able to meet the increased need for gathering and synthesizing baseline habitat and population data to inform decision-making and management of development. An Adaptive Management process to systematically use data on impacts to adjust development is long overdue, as is a program for mitigation of resource losses.
An article in the Washington Post last week titled “Federal Wildlife Monitors Oversee a Boom in Drilling” identified several budget-related challenges for BLM. The increased emphasis on processing leases and drilling permits in an expeditious manner has left already understaffed BLM offices having to task more people, including biologists, with processing paperwork.
"When biologists are diverted from providing pro-active wildlife management services, stewardship opportunities are lost, including possible mitigation for energy related impacts," noted Jim Mosher, Executive Director of the North American Grouse Partnership, and a co-chair of the TRCP’s Energy & Wildlife Working Group [EWWG]. "We believe that the increased demands for biological monitoring and other related wildlife management activities required as part of energy development ought to be paid for with energy program dollars rather than wildlife program funds," Mosher added.
EWWG Co-Chair Rollie Sparrowe, who lives in Daniel, Wyoming, in the heart of an area that has seen a dramatic jump in development in the past few years, adds, "BLM’s budget should reflect the full costs of developing our energy supplies, including fish and wildlife management, and BLM must ensure that funds intended for biological purposes are available and spent for those purposes at the field level."
The Theodore Roosevelt Conservation Partnership (TRCP) is facilitating the EWWG which includes leading national hunting, fishing and conservation organizations interested in ensuring that oil and gas development is expanded without long-term impacts on fish and wildlife. Much of EWWG’s focus is on working with the Department of Interior, BLM, state officials and oil and gas companies to figure out how adequate personnel and resources can be put in place to keep up with expanded oil and gas development.
"The EWWG and hunters and anglers in general support efforts to meet our growing energy needs but we firmly believe that existing methods and techniques for oil and gas development that are more fish and wildlife friendly should be used," says TRCP President Matt Connolly, adding, "those methods and techniques rely on sound scientific data, and we need qualified biologists who can dedicate themselves to research and field work to measure and monitor development impacts."
The EWWG includes several conservation groups led by the North American Grouse Partnership, the Wildlife Management Institute, Trout Unlimited, the International Association of Fish and Wildlife Agencies, the Izaak Walton League of America, and the American Sportfishing Association.
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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.
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