TRCP's protest covers almost 285,000 acres of land where BLM has cleared the way for energy development without proper analysis or conservation planning for elk, pronghorn, mule deer and greater sage grouse. TRCP was compelled to file these protests for the same reason it protested earlier leases in the Beaverhead Valley - and across Wyoming and Colorado. The federal government is failing fish and wildlife - and anglers and hunters alike - by repeatedly neglecting to properly assess and address the effects of energy development.
The parcels in question sprawl across the northeastern part of the state, south of Fort Peck Reservoir and west of the Big Sheep Mountains. It's a wide-open, lonely place, the kind of landscape that exemplifies “Big Sky Country” and a place to which many Montanans rarely venture.
$1-billion-plus annual hunting and fishing industry. They do so for good reason: These 285,000 acres comprise prime habitat for mule deer, pronghorn, elk and sage grouse.
This habitat is in jeopardy from mismanagement by the BLM. In offering these parcels for lease, BLM does not address how it would coordinate with state resource professionals at Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks to meet population objectives. BLM does not cover impacts to hunting and other recreation, saying it cannot predict impacts to mule deer and other species. Yet the possibility exists that hunting opportunities in Garfield and McCone counties could be lost for 75 years or more.
After receiving protests from TRCP, the Montana Wildlife Federation, Trout Unlimited and Hellgate Hunters & Anglers, state BLM director Gene Terland announced his decision to defer leasing on 73,600 acres in three counties, including 59,415 acres in the parcels protested by TRCP, to review research showing that sage grouse populations cannot be sustained under conditions of oil and gas development currently allowed.
In recent years, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service found that oil and gas development had become a significant threat to sage grouse, eclipsing impacts of suburbanization, development of land for agriculture and avian diseases such as West Nile virus. The remaining, non-deferred parcels were offered at auction on July 31, but industry buyers made no bids. The protested parcels will remain available for sale for two years.
The BLM is required to use the best information available when making decisions, and that includes input from the public. But when the people speak - and we at TRCP have seen this firsthand in our earlier protests - the agency tells us that our views are invalid because we don't understand the leasing process.
In fact, we understand quite well how the process works, or more correctly, doesn't work. We've even put our finger on why, because the agency leases first and asks the important questions about fish and wildlife later. The problem is that once the leases are issued, there's a contractual obligation to develop the land. This old way of doing business does not give fish and wildlife what they need.
At the very least, BLM needs to address historic corridors for mule deer and pronghorn in the Garfield-McCone region. Resident herds of both species spend their lives in the lease area. Loss of migratory corridors could jeopardize their ability to connect with habitat.
TRCP is working hard to ensure that development of oil and gas resources on public lands in the Rockies is balanced with the needs of fish and wildlife resources and stands ready to assist the Department of the Interior in devising a new conservation strategy that fits with a sound mineral extraction program.
William Geer is a TRCP initiative manager based in Missoula
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