News about issues affecting the wild lands managed (and sometimes mis-managed) by the Bureau of Land Management -- coming to you from The Wilderness Society’s BLM Action Center
In This Issue:
Former BLM State Director Ann Morgan Briefs House of Representatives about Problems with Oil and Gas Program
Wilderness Society Vice President Ann Morgan testified today (Tuesday, April 17) in front of the Energy and Minerals Subcommittee of the House Natural Resources Committee. Because of her previous experience as a Bureau of Land Management State Director in Colorado and Nevada, her testimony provided a unique overview of the administration’s increasingly voracious oil and gas policies and the changes that have offset the traditional balance between conservation and oil and gas development.
Morgan told the panel that, “Oil and gas development is a legitimate use of the public lands – but not everywhere on the public lands, and not in a manner that impairs other resource values.” She noted that, “It is possible to have an oil and gas program that provides for oil and gas to be made available to the American people, while protecting the last remaining wild places in the American West, the wildlife that inhabit these lands, the quality of the West’s air and water, and the property rights of ranchers and farmers.”
Morgan suggested a number of ideas for improving the BLM’s management of its oil and gas program, including elimination of the “pilot permitting program,” better scrutiny of the environmental impacts of oil and gas projects, a beefed up inspection and enforcement program, more comprehensive reclamation bonding, and protection of wild but unprotected public lands from leasing.
Click here to view the testimony
[Contact: Dave Slater, The Wilderness Society, 202-429-8441]
Early Warning Signs Emerge in Plans for Every Arizona National Monument
The BLM is busy in the state of Arizona. Resource Management Plans (RMPs) for all of Arizona’s national monuments are under consideration, including Ironwood National Monument (comments on the draft plan are due May 30) and the national monuments in the Arizona Strip: Grand Canyon-Parashant and Vermilion Cliffs (protests of the proposed plan were due April 2, 2007), Agua Fria (comments on the draft plan were due April 5, 2006 – the proposed plan is expected late summer 2007), and Sonoran Desert (release of draft plan is expected this summer) national monuments.
Resource Management Plans outline the management guidelines for an area for the next 15-20 years, and this batch of RMPs represent the first ever management plans for these national monuments since their inception seven years ago (exception: Sonoran Desert NM was established in 2001). Advocates for the monuments already suspect, however, that the plans will inadequately protect the cultural, ecological, or historic attributes for which each of these monuments were established.
Concerns include the fact that BLM has not consistently made resource protection the guiding principle of the plans, as required by the proclamations. Instead, BLM has given preference to motorized recreation access, and as a result, recreational pressures and inappropriate uses continue to degrade monument resources. Studies show that motorized routes correlate with cultural resource damage (both malicious and unintentional), harm to wildlife populations, and a reduction in available area for primitive, lower impact recreational pursuits like hiking, and bird watching.
In additional concerns include the BLM’s ability to monitor and institute adaptive management principles in the face of dwindling budgets and exploding urban populations.
[Contact: Scott Jones, The Sierra Club, 602-254-9330, ext 3]
Lease Retirement Means Good News for Montana’s Rocky Mountain Front
Efforts to protect 400,000 acres of National Forest and BLM lands along Montana's Rocky Mountain Front got a boost recently when a third federal mineral leaseholder, Epperson, agreed to retire federal mineral rights on the Front; this time in the Badger Two Medicine.
Last year, two companies -- Calgary-based Startech and Questar -- donated or sold their Front federal leases. The federal leases of those two companies cover all federal mineral leases in the Front’s Blackleaf area, which Startech was planning to drill when the Bush Administration temporarily halted those plans three years ago. Startech agreed to a privately funded buyout of its leases by the Coalition to Protect the Rocky Mountain Front. Startech’s leases cover a total of 23,310 acres but only the 8,460 portion that contains federal mineral rights will be retired. The rest will be returned to the state or private mineral right owners. The Questar leases cover 1,700 federal acres in the Blackleaf area of the Rocky Mountain Front and were donated to Trout Unlimited, just as Epperson’s were.
For More Information
[Contact: Chris Mehl, The Wilderness Society, 406-586-1600]
BLM’s Draft Plan Leaves Little Protected in Wild Northwest Colorado
Northwest Colorado's greatest treasure, 1.3 million acres of publicly owned rugged canyonlands and rolling sagebrush-steppe, is on the brink of degradation and destruction from massive oil and gas development and irresponsible off-road vehicle (ORV) use.
BLM's recently released draft plan opens 93% of the Little Snake Resource Area to oil and gas drilling, including all of the spectacular Vermillion Basin proposed wilderness and many other wilderness-quality lands, while offering almost no protection for the area's priceless natural resources and unspoiled wildlands.
At risk are critical and currently undisturbed habitat for big game (the Colorado Department of Wildlife inventoried more than 56,000 elk, 149,000 deer, and 20,000 pronghorn in the broader region in 2007); over a dozen imperiled plants and animals like the black-footed ferret; and sustainable economic gains from many forms of non-motorized recreation from hiking to hunting. Hunting and fishing alone generated more than $67 million in total economic gains in Moffat and Rout counties in 2002, according to the Colorado Department of Wildlife (“The Economic Impacts of Hunting, Fishing and Wildlife Watching in Colorado,” October 31, 2004).
At this rate, some of Colorado's finest public lands are on track to suffer the same large-scale environmental damages from oil and gas drilling as nearby Pinedale, Wyoming.
[Contact: Heath Nero, The Wilderness Society, 303-650-5818, ext. 116]
Neighboring Communities to Rally at Otero Mesa Public Forum
On April 19, the Otero Mesa Coalition will host a forum in Alamogordo, New Mexico to inspire local communities to protect the precious wildlife, water, and grasslands found in their backyards.
Organizers hope to galvanize support of a request for a three-year moratorium on oil and gas development and leasing in order to allow hydrologists to conduct a water study to better define and quantify the water resource underlying 2,400 square miles of south-central New Mexico. The area’s fragile soil structure makes it highly vulnerable to contamination, oil and gas development in the area places the area’s residents at risk of losing a rare and valuable water resource. Estimated to contain enough groundwater for 1 million New Mexicans to consume for close to 13 years, the Salt Basin Aquifer has become a vital water resource for New Mexico.
Event Details:
- Otero Mesa Public Forum - Working to Protect New Mexico's Wildest Grassland
- Thursday, April 19, 6:00 to 8:00 p.m.
- Elks Lodge – 2290 Hamilton Road
- Alamogordo, New Mexico
Speakers Include:
- Rick Simpson, outfitter and former Lincoln County commissioner;
- Tweeti Walser Blancett, activist and area rancher;
- Steve West, high school teacher and wildlife expert;
- Bill Brown, an energy science, policy and economics expert;
- And a water expert with Interstate Stream Commission.
For more information: http://www.oteromesa.org/
[Contact: Nathan Newcomer, New Mexico Wilderness Alliance, 505-843-8696]
About the BLM Action Center
The BLM Action Center was established by The Wilderness Society in response to the relentless assault on America’s public lands. The Action Center operates out of Denver with a mission to protect America’s wild lands and open spaces by helping people participate in decisions that will shape the management of millions of acres of BLM lands throughout the Intermountain West. We also serve as a resource for journalists and a link to the vast expertise of The Wilderness Society’s national staff.
BLM Action Center Staff
- Communications Manager Melissa Kolwaite, a great resource, can direct you to our many experts and spokespeople. 303-650-5818, ext. 118
- Attorney Nada Culver, a great source for interpreting legal aspects of the BLM planning processes. 303-650-5818, ext. 117
- Coordinator Heath Nero is an expert in grassroots organization and governmental processes. 303-650-5818, ext. 116
Additional TWS Communications Contacts
>> Visit the BLM Action Center
