BuzzH
Well-known member
Looks like the current administration better buckle up...
“Rocky Mountain Front - Sacrificial Lamb For The Sake of Las Vegas Casinos?”
Choteau, MT - Ranchers, wilderness outfitters and Blackfeet tribal members sat side by side with hunters, anglers, and other conservation minded individuals in a packed house in Choteau on Saturday for Montana Wildlife Federation’s (MWF) Public Symposium on the Rocky Mountain Front: A Wildlife Paradise. A crowded room of more than 150 people discussed the
Rocky Mountain Front at the Choteau Country Club on Saturday, December 6, 2003. Despite some other issue differences, the group spoke as one, DO NOT DRILL THE ROCKY MOUNTAIN FRONT! Panel discussions explored energy development, travel planning and values of the Front and its future.
A lifelong Republican, Karl Rappold’s ranch borders the Front and the wilderness and he has changed his view about this president and his party’s Energy Bill; as he said on Tom Brokaw’s Nightly News this past Wednesday, he stated at the Symposium, ” My grandfather came to the Mountain Front in 1882 and for 100 and 21 years it has done nothing but provide for my family. It’s my turn to stand up for the Front. Its fresh air, clean water and hard grass produces the best beef cattle in the world. I want to keep it for my children, not as a gas slope."
Well known hunter and outdoor writer for conservation periodicals such as Sports Afield, Outside and Audubon magazine, plus his own books, Ted Kerasote, spoke to the heart of values when he said: ”Anyone who values the Front should work as hard as possible to put another administration in power.” Speakers throughout the day lauded the values, fearing that those values could quickly become degraded if energy and travel planning doesn’t proceed with caution.
The Rocky Mountain Front is a fish and wildlife paradise. This striking landscape, the source for four major river drainages, six if you include that portion north of Highway 2, supports the largest herd of Bighorn Sheep in the US, a fact only slightly more significant than that it also includes the nation’s second largest free-roaming elk herd that migrates from deep wilderness haunts of the Bob Marshall Complex to the plains to survive the winter. “The Front is the only area remaining where the Grizzly Bear migrates to the Great Plains” world-recognized bear biologist, Mike Madel of Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks said, as he impressed the audience with his slides. “Mountain goats, wolverines, swift fox, wolves add to the list of game and non-game birds and mammals; 290 species or more, live here”. Madel boasts of wildlife value unique to the Front: “ All species present here when Lewis and Clark passed by remain here with the exception of the American Bison.” Starting in 1913, hunters, business owners, hikers, outfitters and multi-generational landowners worked together to protect this “American Serengeti” as the Front is often referred to.
Leases to drill for the minimal natural gas reserves proved the most contentious. A standing ovation greeted the initial speaker of the day, one-time Lewis and Clark National Forest Supervisor, Gloria Flora, who, in 1997 while she was in that position, placed the Rocky Mountain Front off-limits to Natural Gas Leases for ten years. If the BLM approves drilling, her authority to conserve the significant values of this area from effects of drilling would be curtailed. Flora found it interesting that “The Energy Bill and Executive Orders and all statements by the Administration stress expediting the permitting and exploration process, but nowhere did I hear that mitigation, monitoring by the administration, compliance nor reclamation be expedited. Oh No! It’s just getting permits out the door that is where we are now focused.” Present administration and Congressional priorities clearly want to set a precedent as documented by statements made by Tom DeLay and relayed by Flora. “Congress and Industry knows that if they can get in there (circumventing environmental protection to drill the Front), they can get in anywhere.”
North of the Canadian border, residents are already experiencing what symposium attendees fear for the Front. Dr. Brian Horejsi, with a BS in Forestry and a Doctorate in Biology was once a consultant to the western Canadian oil and gas industry. Dr. Horejsi presented slides of sulfur piles 25 feet thick, big enough to cover a football field. Poisonings from broken gas lines, pictures of bighorn ewes burnt black but still walking, and quotes of ravished wildlife populations punctuated their tale of industry abuse. Horejsi gave supporting information the effects of habitat fragmentation. He showed a graph that illuminated sow grizzly home ranges; 3 grizzly bear females occupy an area in Alberta corresponding in size to an area south of the border in the Northern Rockies Ecosystem that supports densities of over 200 female bears.
“Alberta is the home of the world record bighorn ram and there is an economic effect from preserving sheep,” Mike Judd, an Alberta outfitter who lives within a half-mile of a natural gas drill site, stated, “In the past 6 or 7 years, there hasn’t been a legal bighorn ram killed. The oil and gas industry has usurped some of the most valuable wildlife habitat on the continent!”
Public participation is not part of the Canadian system as it is in the US; wells are drilled less than 2 months after the application to drill is received. Don Judice of the U. S. Bureau of Land Management processes the applications to drill for federal minerals, some of which lie under private lands in a legal situation known as “split estate.”
“You wouldn’t want my job!” he complained. Lewis and Clark Forest Supervisor, Rolando Ortegon concurred that it is a difficult position to be in, but orders come from Washington and they have no choice but to follow them.
During the question and Answer portion of this panel, Patrick Montalban, an oil and gas developer from Cut Bank spoke up in defense of his industry: “I am in favor of developing natural gas on the Rocky Mountain Front!” He related alcoholism and violence to a lack of jobs, insisting that developing the Front will bring jobs. “Unemployment is our greatest problem, folks, not saving the bears, and the coyotes and the wolves. It’s not the priority of the State of Montana.” Many hands went up when he asked: “How many Montanans are here, the hard working rancher?” but all hands lowered when he asked how many want the front developed. Gloria Flora reminded the developer that the industry itself only estimates 7 jobs total would be created from drilling the Front. Horejsi spoke much more agitated at the statement: “The vast majority of people do not benefit from drilling!”
Choteau schoolteacher, Gene Sentz, displayed a map showing all roads in the US. He pointed to a white spot among the gray of roads saying: “The Front and Bob Marshall are almost the sole unroaded remnants in this Nation. Compromise got us to this point.” He noted that any energy from the Front will likely leave the state and to put things into perspective; “Are we gonna sacrifice our Front for another Las Vegas Casino, or a Nascar race or a Superbowl?” He calculated that one Superbowl uses the equivalent energy that several African countries do in one year, the cost of which equals their gross national product.
The day was punctuated by testimony rife with emotion and expressions of why the Front should remain like it is. Economist John Duffield exploded the myth that jobs come only from industrializing the Front. Recent reports from the Associated Press documented economic benefits from national parks and other protected natural areas.
But perhaps the most powerful speaker was Blackfeet Chief, Earl Old Person, who enraptured listeners with tales of his elders, joking with the crowd, and calling for unity if the trend to develop goes forward. “This is not going to come to an end, we’ll find some solution. This is so dangerous that we don’t know what will happen tomorrow. It is important that you, as leaders, carry the message, so that others are protected.” You could hear a pin drop when the revered leader continued: “While it’s here, we need to do the things that we can to protect what makes it real.”
County Commissioner, Mary Sexton, relayed facts to counter the emotions of
the day citing 7 gas jobs in recent years that offered only $40,000 per year, 2 to 4 % of the county’s budget for schools and county business from gas production in Teton County. Many participants, from rancher Dusty Crary, to outfitter Chuck Blixrud, shared their experiences and expressed that they want to continue making their living in the same way that they always have. An uncompromised, protected Front is the only way to accomplish that.
Ted Kerasote finished the day. He relayed experiences about the wholesale
exploitation of his home in Jackson Hole and to not let the same arguments, expressed by the gentleman from Cut Bank, push jobs and economics as the reason to drill the Front. ”The future will bring only scarcity; you are sitting on a gold mine! Saving it is making the right decision.”.
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<FONT COLOR="#800080" SIZE="1">[ 12-11-2003 14:08: Message edited by: BuzzH ]</font>
“Rocky Mountain Front - Sacrificial Lamb For The Sake of Las Vegas Casinos?”
Choteau, MT - Ranchers, wilderness outfitters and Blackfeet tribal members sat side by side with hunters, anglers, and other conservation minded individuals in a packed house in Choteau on Saturday for Montana Wildlife Federation’s (MWF) Public Symposium on the Rocky Mountain Front: A Wildlife Paradise. A crowded room of more than 150 people discussed the
Rocky Mountain Front at the Choteau Country Club on Saturday, December 6, 2003. Despite some other issue differences, the group spoke as one, DO NOT DRILL THE ROCKY MOUNTAIN FRONT! Panel discussions explored energy development, travel planning and values of the Front and its future.
A lifelong Republican, Karl Rappold’s ranch borders the Front and the wilderness and he has changed his view about this president and his party’s Energy Bill; as he said on Tom Brokaw’s Nightly News this past Wednesday, he stated at the Symposium, ” My grandfather came to the Mountain Front in 1882 and for 100 and 21 years it has done nothing but provide for my family. It’s my turn to stand up for the Front. Its fresh air, clean water and hard grass produces the best beef cattle in the world. I want to keep it for my children, not as a gas slope."
Well known hunter and outdoor writer for conservation periodicals such as Sports Afield, Outside and Audubon magazine, plus his own books, Ted Kerasote, spoke to the heart of values when he said: ”Anyone who values the Front should work as hard as possible to put another administration in power.” Speakers throughout the day lauded the values, fearing that those values could quickly become degraded if energy and travel planning doesn’t proceed with caution.
The Rocky Mountain Front is a fish and wildlife paradise. This striking landscape, the source for four major river drainages, six if you include that portion north of Highway 2, supports the largest herd of Bighorn Sheep in the US, a fact only slightly more significant than that it also includes the nation’s second largest free-roaming elk herd that migrates from deep wilderness haunts of the Bob Marshall Complex to the plains to survive the winter. “The Front is the only area remaining where the Grizzly Bear migrates to the Great Plains” world-recognized bear biologist, Mike Madel of Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks said, as he impressed the audience with his slides. “Mountain goats, wolverines, swift fox, wolves add to the list of game and non-game birds and mammals; 290 species or more, live here”. Madel boasts of wildlife value unique to the Front: “ All species present here when Lewis and Clark passed by remain here with the exception of the American Bison.” Starting in 1913, hunters, business owners, hikers, outfitters and multi-generational landowners worked together to protect this “American Serengeti” as the Front is often referred to.
Leases to drill for the minimal natural gas reserves proved the most contentious. A standing ovation greeted the initial speaker of the day, one-time Lewis and Clark National Forest Supervisor, Gloria Flora, who, in 1997 while she was in that position, placed the Rocky Mountain Front off-limits to Natural Gas Leases for ten years. If the BLM approves drilling, her authority to conserve the significant values of this area from effects of drilling would be curtailed. Flora found it interesting that “The Energy Bill and Executive Orders and all statements by the Administration stress expediting the permitting and exploration process, but nowhere did I hear that mitigation, monitoring by the administration, compliance nor reclamation be expedited. Oh No! It’s just getting permits out the door that is where we are now focused.” Present administration and Congressional priorities clearly want to set a precedent as documented by statements made by Tom DeLay and relayed by Flora. “Congress and Industry knows that if they can get in there (circumventing environmental protection to drill the Front), they can get in anywhere.”
North of the Canadian border, residents are already experiencing what symposium attendees fear for the Front. Dr. Brian Horejsi, with a BS in Forestry and a Doctorate in Biology was once a consultant to the western Canadian oil and gas industry. Dr. Horejsi presented slides of sulfur piles 25 feet thick, big enough to cover a football field. Poisonings from broken gas lines, pictures of bighorn ewes burnt black but still walking, and quotes of ravished wildlife populations punctuated their tale of industry abuse. Horejsi gave supporting information the effects of habitat fragmentation. He showed a graph that illuminated sow grizzly home ranges; 3 grizzly bear females occupy an area in Alberta corresponding in size to an area south of the border in the Northern Rockies Ecosystem that supports densities of over 200 female bears.
“Alberta is the home of the world record bighorn ram and there is an economic effect from preserving sheep,” Mike Judd, an Alberta outfitter who lives within a half-mile of a natural gas drill site, stated, “In the past 6 or 7 years, there hasn’t been a legal bighorn ram killed. The oil and gas industry has usurped some of the most valuable wildlife habitat on the continent!”
Public participation is not part of the Canadian system as it is in the US; wells are drilled less than 2 months after the application to drill is received. Don Judice of the U. S. Bureau of Land Management processes the applications to drill for federal minerals, some of which lie under private lands in a legal situation known as “split estate.”
“You wouldn’t want my job!” he complained. Lewis and Clark Forest Supervisor, Rolando Ortegon concurred that it is a difficult position to be in, but orders come from Washington and they have no choice but to follow them.
During the question and Answer portion of this panel, Patrick Montalban, an oil and gas developer from Cut Bank spoke up in defense of his industry: “I am in favor of developing natural gas on the Rocky Mountain Front!” He related alcoholism and violence to a lack of jobs, insisting that developing the Front will bring jobs. “Unemployment is our greatest problem, folks, not saving the bears, and the coyotes and the wolves. It’s not the priority of the State of Montana.” Many hands went up when he asked: “How many Montanans are here, the hard working rancher?” but all hands lowered when he asked how many want the front developed. Gloria Flora reminded the developer that the industry itself only estimates 7 jobs total would be created from drilling the Front. Horejsi spoke much more agitated at the statement: “The vast majority of people do not benefit from drilling!”
Choteau schoolteacher, Gene Sentz, displayed a map showing all roads in the US. He pointed to a white spot among the gray of roads saying: “The Front and Bob Marshall are almost the sole unroaded remnants in this Nation. Compromise got us to this point.” He noted that any energy from the Front will likely leave the state and to put things into perspective; “Are we gonna sacrifice our Front for another Las Vegas Casino, or a Nascar race or a Superbowl?” He calculated that one Superbowl uses the equivalent energy that several African countries do in one year, the cost of which equals their gross national product.
The day was punctuated by testimony rife with emotion and expressions of why the Front should remain like it is. Economist John Duffield exploded the myth that jobs come only from industrializing the Front. Recent reports from the Associated Press documented economic benefits from national parks and other protected natural areas.
But perhaps the most powerful speaker was Blackfeet Chief, Earl Old Person, who enraptured listeners with tales of his elders, joking with the crowd, and calling for unity if the trend to develop goes forward. “This is not going to come to an end, we’ll find some solution. This is so dangerous that we don’t know what will happen tomorrow. It is important that you, as leaders, carry the message, so that others are protected.” You could hear a pin drop when the revered leader continued: “While it’s here, we need to do the things that we can to protect what makes it real.”
County Commissioner, Mary Sexton, relayed facts to counter the emotions of
the day citing 7 gas jobs in recent years that offered only $40,000 per year, 2 to 4 % of the county’s budget for schools and county business from gas production in Teton County. Many participants, from rancher Dusty Crary, to outfitter Chuck Blixrud, shared their experiences and expressed that they want to continue making their living in the same way that they always have. An uncompromised, protected Front is the only way to accomplish that.
Ted Kerasote finished the day. He relayed experiences about the wholesale
exploitation of his home in Jackson Hole and to not let the same arguments, expressed by the gentleman from Cut Bank, push jobs and economics as the reason to drill the Front. ”The future will bring only scarcity; you are sitting on a gold mine! Saving it is making the right decision.”.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
<FONT COLOR="#800080" SIZE="1">[ 12-11-2003 14:08: Message edited by: BuzzH ]</font>
