SECOND GOLD RUSH UNDERWAY?

Red Alert on Energy Leases

By Bill Schneider, 4-15-07

	Jonah Gas Field, Upper Green River Valley, Wyoming. Photo courtesy skytruth.org.

It’s a Red Alert out at the offices of the Montana Department of Fish, Wildlife and Parks (FWP). Once again, Montana is trying to not be another Wyoming.

The threat is rampant leasing for fossil fuel exploration, drilling and associated development. Such runaway development has severely impacted wildlife and hunting and fishing opportunities in similar areas of Wyoming and Alberta. Now, wildlife pros fear, Montana is next.

“Things are going to change more in Montana in the next 10 years than they have in the last 50 years,” predicts Larry Peterman, chief of field operations for FWP. And he is not talking about positive change.

Last week, I rode my bicycle out to the FWP headquarters to watch a spiffy PowerPoint presentation Peterman put together to illustrate what’s going to happen to Montana in the next few years. It shocked me, and it should scare the stuffing out of every angler and hunter in the state--and all others who enjoy seeing wildlife.

“Energy development” covers a large spectrum, so FWP has divided it into two groups. Above the “Red Line” are wind, transmission, bio-fuels and what’s now called “clean coal,” which means developing Montana’s vast coalfields in an environmentally sensitive way, if possible. Below the line are natural gas and coal bed methane (CBM) development.

Basically, Peterman believes, wildlife professionals can only ‘mitigate” energy development “above the line,” not rampant natural gas and CBM development. “Mitigate” means agencies can work with energy developers to lessen, but not prevent, the negative impact on fish and wildlife resources.  “There’s a dark side to all this energy development,” Peterman insists.

The Bureau of Land Management (BLM) is the lead federal agency on energy leasing and the agency issues leases not only on BLM land but also national forests and private land.

Natural gas development is Peterman’s main concern because of what he sees as a big push to lease up as much land as possible. “The BLM is leasing up the whole state under the radar line,” he warns. “You want to speculate that they are trying to get it all leased under the current administration.”

If true, that means the BLM only has 625 days to go.

Bill Geer of the Theodore Roosevelt Conservation Partnership, a nonprofit group focusing on protecting fish and wildlife habitat and opportunity for anglers and hunters, agrees. In a phone interview, Geer strongly supported the Red Alert being put out by FWP. 

“It’s like the Gold Rush out there, but it doesn’t all have be done at one time,” Geer claims. “So, why all at once? One, we have an administration that says that we have to get the resource out of the ground as fast as possible. And two, there is a real potential for huge economic gain.”

Geer, former director of the Utah Department of Wildlife Resources, is also stunned by the magnitude of the upcoming energy boom. “I’ve been working on wildlife conservation for 34 years, and I’ve never seen anything that has the potential for such devastation if it’s not done right. Even if it is done right, it will have a substantial impact on the wildlife resource.”

Peterman and Geer both say the current panic to lease everything is the big problem because it doesn’t allow time for planning.  “Once you issue the lease, you can’t stop it,” Geer points out.

“We need to insist on conservation and reclamation before they issue the leases,” Peterman adds, “not after the lease is issued when it’s too late.”

The BLM is not only issuing leases on public land, but also private land. Throughout the West, private landowners often own only surface rights, not mineral rights, creating what’s called a “split estate.” This means the BLM can lease the mineral rights to private land without consent or even the knowledge of the surface landowner who has no rights to prevent damage to farming or ranching operations. An energy company can come in, build roads, put up fences, drill, and build pipelines and other associated facilities, and the landowner has no power to prevent it. “If the rancher locks the gate,” Peterman explains, “the company can just get out the bolt cutters and cut off the padlock.”

FWP biologists are, according to Peterman, focusing on the sage grouse as an indicator species on the impact of fossil fuel leasing. Sage grouse dancing grounds, or leks, are extremely sensitive to human intrusion. Because of rampant energy development, he notes, the sage grouse could be forced onto the endangered species list.

Peterman and other FWP officials have recently returned from a field trip to Wyoming where local biologists have documented a dramatic decline in sage grouse. “One nearby gas well can destroy a sage grouse lek,” he notes.

Wyoming has also documented a 40 percent decline in the mule deer population around Pinedale due to extensive natural gas drilling. Note the before-and-after photos from this gas field accompanying this article taken by SkyTruth, a non-profit organization using remote sensing technology to support environmental causes. The photos show a nearly pristine Wyoming landscape near Pinedale, now known as the Jonah Gas Field, transformed into a high density fossil fuel development. You can go to the SkyTruth website for more detailed photos.

In this Wyoming gas field, the BLM started issuing leases at a tolerable density of one well per 80 acres, but that was reduced to 40, and then 20. “And now, they’re pushing that down to five acres,” Peterman notes. “There is no way to maintain a mule deer population with that dense development, let alone a ranching operation.”

So, the obvious question arises. Why has Montana been so far spared when similar gas fields in Wyoming and Alberta have been extensively developed in similar terrain? Both Geer and Peterman give the same answer: “Not enough drilling rigs.” Does that scare you or what? With the leases issued, all that’s holding back development is a shortage of equipment, which seems like an easy problem for energy companies to fix. When they are done drilling in Wyoming, they can just move up to Montana with no regulatory barriers or delays because they already have the leases.

Before this happens, though, perhaps Montana can listen to the Red Alert being sent out by FWP and install preventive measures to prevent what’s already happened to our neighbors. Or, here’s a radical idea. Just not do it. This reminds Peterman of a speech on the future of the Big Sky State given by former Montana Congressman Pat Williams, who said: “If we don’t build it, they will come.”

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