TRCP protests lease sale

Posted by egable on October 30th, 2008 filed in Energy development, Wildlife

The Theodore Roosevelt Conservation Partnership is protesting federal leases that it says would permit oil and gas drilling in crucial big-game winter range and migration corridors and Colorado cutthroat trout habitat. The sportsmen’s protest of the Bureau of Land Management’s Nov. 13 lease sale comprises more than 16,000 acres where the group says energy development could have dramatic and long-term effects on game populations.

The Colorado Division of Wildlife has identified winter range and migration routes as “vital” to the survival and sustainability of big game, and the Western Governors Association recently released a report specifying the importance of wildlife corridors in maintaining “significant, reliable wildlife populations.” Scientific studies have concluded that energy projects established near big-game migration corridors can result in population declines in species such as mule deer.

“Just last winter, the Colorado BLM was forced to enact emergency closures of public lands to protect animals on winter ranges,” TRCP field representative Dwayne Meadows said in a statement. “If these leases are sold, the BLM will lack discretion to responsibly manage development and, therefore, have little ability to close the areas to human traffic, if conditions should require it.”

The TRCP protest encompasses parts of the Navajo River drainage that provide important habitat for Colorado River cutthroat trout, which the BLM and DOW have labeled as a “species of concern” or “sensitive species.” Leasing the areas in question would violate a conservation agreement between the two agencies and rely on management plans that in some cases are more than 20 years old, TRCP says. Since the plans originally were written, significant new information about the effects of energy development on game has been published that TRCP says BLM must consider.

The sportsmen’s group asks that the leases address President Bush’s 2007 executive order on hunting, which aims to “facilitate the expansion and enhancement of hunting opportunities and the management of game species and their habitat.” The order is directed at entities such as the Interior Department that administer public lands, recreation and wildlife management. Hunting and angling activities contribute substantially to Colorado’s economy, annually generating more than $1 billion for the state.