Leasing Blue Ribbon Fisheries

By Bill Schneider, 8-12-09

Last week, I was down on the mighty Yellowstone, the longest, free-flowing river in the Continental United States, drift fishing with Trout Unlimited (TU) and talking energy independence.

Unknown to many anglers, the federal government, through the Bureau of Land Management (BLM), is currently developing management plans for oil and gas leasing on land it manages, mostly in western states, 32 million acres right in Montana, including 906,000 acres in the Billings Resource Area where we were fishing. Three blue ribbon trout streams (Yellowstone, Stillwater and Boulder) and many key tributaries flow right through it.

It’s challenging to even grasp the scale of pending energy development and its potential impact on fish and wildlife. In the Rocky Mountain States alone, the BLM has the power to lease up to 158 million acres, of which 30 million acres are already under lease.

TU’s mission is to preserve cold-water fisheries, so traditionally, the group hasn’t paid much attention to oil and gas issues because most of it has been occurring in warm-water fisheries. Now, that’s changed, and TU is on red alert, trying to get proper policy in place before it’s too late.

At breakfast at the historic Grand Hotel in Big Timber, Corey Fisher, TU’s energy field coordinator, emphasizes that “We’re not saying there shouldn’t be oil and gas development. It’s a matter of where you do it and having proper planning at the front end.”

That’s always the problem, isn’t it? People aren’t against development, they just want it “somewhere else.”

It this case, though, “somewhere else” should be easy for the BLM and energy companies because all TU wants is a half-mile setback from key cold-water fisheries like the Yellowstone River and from streams with struggling Yellowstone cutthroat populations or those that could be used for future restoration.

Under TU’s proposal, energy companies could still directionally drill beneath this half-mile setback or even beneath the rivers to access oil and gas deposits, Fisher explains, but there would be no “surface occupancy.”

That’s critical, he notes, because it prevents sediments from washing into our waterways.

Doesn’t sound like too much to ask, and at least one BLM office, the Butte Resource Office, agreed. In its plan published last year, the BLM agreed to require the half-mile setback from blue ribbon streams in that district such as the Big Hole and Madison Rivers. Now, TU wants the same from the Billings Resource Area, which will release its plan this winter, and then keep going and make it a trend leading to a national policy.

Actually, TU hopes for a little more than the Butte office agreed to--the addition of a similar setback for red ribbon streams and for smaller streams important for restoration.

(Blue ribbon and red ribbon are official terms, incidentally, not just outdoor-writer-speak. Click here to see the map published by Montana’s Department of Fish, Wildlife and Parks.)

Interestingly, Fisher muses, not much seems to have changed with the changing of the guard in The White House.  Congress and the President are so pre-occupied with bigger issues like wars, economic recovery and health care that BLM management plans get little attention. But the process keeps marching on, and the land keeps being leased.

Once the land is leased, Fisher notes, we have fewer options for control development and preventing water quality damage, which is why the management plans that regulate leasing are so vital.

“This is the perfect time to get it right,” Fisher emphasizes. Since the Butte office got it right, if Billings can, too, then perhaps “we can do the same in other states.”

Out on the river between casts, TU outreach director Michael Gibson and I talk about what we don’t see along the scenic Yellowstone River corridor--no drilling rigs, even though we float through a couple of parcels that have already been leased. Unless TU and other groups succeed in getting the half-mile setback, this might be the last year anglers won’t see them.

We also chat, interrupted here and there by a brown or rainbow, about all the fishing guides and their clients we saw at the boat ramp and imagine what they might think and how it might affect the outfitting business.

And then there are those split estates, where the surface owner doesn’t own the mineral rights. The BLM can lease and allow development of the mineral rights over the objections of a conservation-minded surface landowner. Even most conservation easements don’t withdraw the mineral rights.

There could even be “fracking” along the Yellowstone and other western trout streams, the incredibly destructive practice where energy companies inject a secret cocktail of toxic chemicals into a drill hole to improve the flow of natural gas. Not surprisingly, those toxins end up in the water table and then in the river.

So what to do about it? Both Gibson and Fisher point to the impending release of the Billings office management plan as a pivotal point in efforts to get ahead in the game. When it comes out, there will be a comment period for public input. In the meantime, get on TU’s action alert list so you can get a heads up on when your voice is needed. Click here to sign up.