News for Immediate Release July 18, 2007 Contact: Bill Geer, 406-396-0909, bgeer@trcp.org TRCP Protests Oil and Gas Leases on 300,000 Acres in Montana Group says parcels are being offered without adequate concern, conservation plan for big-game animals WASHINGTON – The Theodore Roosevelt Conservation Partnership (TRCP) today announced it has filed a formal protest of the Bureau of Land Management’s plans to lease 127 parcels in northeast Montana’s Garfield and McCone counties. The national conservation coalition’s protest covers almost 300,000 acres of land, on which it says the federal agency has cleared the way for energy development without doing proper analysis or conservation planning for elk, pronghorn, mule deer and greater sage grouse. “We are compelled to file these protests for the same reason we protested earlier leases in the Beaverhead Valley – and across Wyoming and Colorado,” said Bill Geer, a TRCP initiative manager based in Missoula. “The federal government is failing fish and wildlife – and anglers and hunters alike – by repeatedly neglecting to properly assess and address the effects of energy development.” “The BLM is required to use the best information available when making decisions,” said Steve Belinda, TRCP Energy Initiative Manager, “and that includes input from the people. But when the people speak – and we’ve seen this first-hard in our earlier protests – the agency keeps telling us that our views are invalid because we just don’t understand the leasing process. “To the contrary, we understand quite well how the process works, or, more correctly, doesn’t work,” Belinda, a former BLM biologist, continued. “We’ve even put our finger on why, because the agency leases first and asks the important questions about fish and wildlife later. The problem is that once the leases are issued, there’s a contractual obligation to develop the land. This old way of doing business does not give fish and wildlife what they need.” “Energy development on such a large scale has the potential to irrevocably alter this unique landscape and harm important wildlife habitat,” said Geer. “By continuing to issue leases at a breakneck pace despite numerous past protests from sportsmen’s groups, BLM is directly snubbing America’s hunters and anglers. What’s sadly ironic is that these citizens generate billions of dollars in support of conservation through licenses, taxes and fees. So not only is the agency potentially undoing their conservation accomplishments, it’s diminishing our national ability to be good resource stewards. Our sportsmen, and our country, deserve better.” “If you are an American hunter or angler anywhere in the country, you have a stake in the debate over how to develop energy resources on our federal public land in the West,” said TRCP President and CEO George Cooper. “The promise of western hunting and fishing adventures to come keeps many of us back East active and engaged as sportsmen. To imperil the West’s most valuable public lands is to imperil our dwindling outdoor heritage.” 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. |