Energy Development=less hunting Access

[Nemont]

Energy boom hurts wildlife, lands access, advocates say
By NOELLE STRAUB
Gazette Washington Bureau

WASHINGTON - Hunters and anglers face growing restrictions on access to public lands and waters because energy development has taken priority over wildlife and habitat protections, conservationists and labor leaders testified Tuesday.

"Throughout the country, working men and women are having a harder time finding public access to hunting and fishing areas, and those that are still available are often experiencing a decrease in the quality and quantity of fish and game," said William Hite, president of a plumbing and pipefitting trade union.

Democrats who head the House Natural Resources Committee called the hearing because they said the Bush administration has placed oil and gas drilling over all other land-use priorities, sweeping aside protections for the species central to hunting and angling.

"Energy development is not being done right on the public lands in the West," said Rollin Sparrowe, a board member of the Theodore Roosevelt Conservation Partnership and former supervisor of U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service research programs on Rocky Mountains wildlife. Sparrowe said research and monitoring over the past several years have shown which actions hurt wildlife during energy development. "Yet we're continuing to authorize new projects that repeat those same mistakes," he said.

Leasing is being offered in sensitive wildlife areas without proper evaluation of its effects first, he said.

He did not call for an end to drilling but rather for operations to be adjusted.

"We see this as an immediate threat during the next couple of years that needs to be stopped now or we're going to lose a lot more than we need to," he said.

Sparrowe noted that oil and gas leasing has accelerated since the November election.

"People want to get as much leased as they can under the current administration before it's too late," he said.

The hearing's title - "Access Denied: The growing conflict between fishing, hunting and energy development on federal lands" - was called misleading by Rep. Stevan Pearce, R-N.M.

"We're being led to believe the sky is falling when it's just a small area of land that's being dealt with," Pearce said.

Rep. Don Young, R-Alaska, the top-ranking Republican on the committee, said less than 5 percent of BLM land is permitted for drilling, "yet we're talking about not having access."

"If we continue down this path of not developing energy, you won't have any freedom in this country," he said.

None of the witnesses advocated a stop to drilling, and all praised efforts for U.S. energy independence. But they said production must go forward with adequate habitat protections in place. They said it is not the percentage of land being developed but the distribution of the activity that has an impact on wildlife.

Hite, Sparrow, Williams and another witness were all part of the Theodore Roosevelt Conservation Partnership, prompting Republican complaints over having them all testify.

An energy executive, Charles Greenhawt, manager of government affairs for Questar Corp., also testified. Questar's largest single field development is located on the Pinedale Anticline in Sublette County, Wyo.

That field has gone from almost no production to the nation's second-largest natural gas field in less than a decade, he said.

Greenhawt said Questar's leases derive from the 1950s and had no special protections for wildlife. But the BLM was quick to react when the company started drilling activities in the late 1990s, he said. In 2000, the BLM issued a record of decision that included wildlife provisions.

Questar spent more than $200 million for mitigation measures, including installing directional drilling technology, using pipelines instead of trucks to move liquids and switching to year-round production. He said all the companies drilling there will spend about $1 billion total for wildlife and environmental concerns.

"I am proud of the company's extraordinary efforts in Pinedale," Greenhawt said.

He also said natural gas operations have little impact on wildlife habitat when compared with drought.

Sparrowe, who chaired an Interior Department citizens group on Pinedale Anticline wildlife, said studies show the drop in mule deer numbers and effects on other wildlife there were not attributable to drought or anything else except drilling.

A proposed project would add about 4,000 wells there, he said.

Sparrowe said the primary effect on mule deer and sage grouse is behavioral. Even though intense development is restricted to an industrial area, breeding and winter use will be affected over a wider area.

"These charts and figures that show a limited amount being affected are not accurate in terms of the science," he said.

 

[BuzzH]

He also said natural gas operations have little impact on wildlife habitat when compared with drought.


Greenhawt...the expert hired by Questar...also predicted that nuclear holocust would likely have an even bigger impact on mule deer than natural gas operations. "The science predicts that...and I'm proud of the job Questar has done to make these determininations".

 

[Nemont]

Buzz,
The whole thing with Questar is a contradiction. I have read pretty clearly written articles documenting the decline in Mule Deer. If that is the field they are proud of I would hate to see the fields they wouldn't be proud of.

I like modern living as well as anybody but not the cost of all publics lands.

Nemont