Oil, Gas Leases in Roadless Wyoming Forest Called Illegal

JACKSON, Wyoming, August 24, 2004 (ENS) - Oil and gas leasing proposed for western Wyoming’s Bridger-Teton National Forest would give energy companies the right to build roads, drill wells, and run pipelines through public lands that are now roadless backcountry without public input or environmental assessment, conservationists are warning.

A coalition of conservation and outdoor education groups last week formally asked the U.S. Forest Service to withdraw plans to lease nearly 158,000 acres for oil and gas development in the Wyoming Range bordering the Upper Green River Valley and the upper Hoback region 25 miles southeast of Jackson Hole.

The Forest Service has authorized the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) to auction mineral leases on 157,658 acres of national forest lands in this area in October and December 2004.

Of the total land area approved for leasing, 87,327 acres would be leased under terms that permit development of roads, drill pads, and oil and gas infrastructure on the surface of the leased lands.

Cliff Creek in the Bridger-Teton National Forest (Photo by Tom Darin courtesy Earthjustice)

Preso wrote the letter on behalf of the Biodiversity Conservation Alliance, Greater Yellowstone Coalition, Jackson Hole Conservation Alliance, National Outdoor Leadership School, Natural Resources Defense Council, Sierra Club, Upper Green River Valley Coalition, The Wilderness Society, and Wyoming Outdoor Council.

The letter puts the Forest Service on notice that its consent to the proposed leasing violates a number of federal laws - the National Forest Management Act regulations; the Bridger-Teton National Forest Land and Resource Management Plan; the National Environmental Policy Act, the Endangered Species Act, and the Roadless Area Conservation Rule.

“The fate of the Wyoming Range’s world class hunting and wild and scenic trout streams is at stake here,” said Tom Darin of the Jackson Hole Conservation Alliance. “We're extremely disappointed that this massive proposal was done through internal bureaucratic paperwork and without public involvement. The public should have a say in the future of these lands.”

The conservationists point out that the Forest Service has deferred a full environmental impact analysis of oil and gas operations until after leases are issued, although the agency expects at least 90 wells to result from the proposed leasing.

The areas proposed for lease include 92,000 acres of inventoried roadless areas. The conservation groups argue that under the Roadless Area Conservation Rule, roads may only be built to leases that existed at the time the rule came into effect, on January 12, 2001.

In consenting to this leasing, Preso wrote in his letter, the Forest Service appears to be relying on the 2003 decision of the Wyoming federal district court which enjoined application of the Roadless Area Conservation Rule in Wyoming. But this ruling is now on appeal.

"The proposed leasing authorizes surface development in inventoried roadless areas that would be illegal if the appeal is successful," Preso wrote. "Stay proceedings in the Tenth Circuit may be required to prevent such leasing if the Forest Service insists on moving forward."

“This is simply not the place for intense industrial development,” added Jeff Kessler of the Biodiversity Conservation Alliance. “The natural and recreation values are far too high.”

A roadless part of the Wyoming range where leasing may be permitted (Photo by Lloyd Dorsey courtesy Earthjustice)

But, as Preso points out in his letter to the Forest Service, in a parallel 1983 case on oil and gas leasing in the Bridger-Teton National Forest, the U.S. Court of Appeals rejected the Forest Service’s contention, identical to the agency’s current position, “that leasing is a discrete transaction which will not result in any physical or biological impacts.”

Instead, as recently as the February 2003 Final Environmental Impact Statement on Oil and Gas Leasing in Bridger-Teton National Forest Management Areas 21, 45, 71 and 72, the agency acknowledged that, “Once leased, the lessee has the right to explore, develop and produce oil and gas under the terms of the lease.”

The proposed leasing would occur adjacent to BLM lands in the Upper Green River Valley, already the site of more than 3,000 natural gas wells, with thousands more on the way and 75 percent of the valley currently under lease.

This level of existing development already threatens unique wildlife migration corridors and air quality in nearby wilderness areas and national parks. Yet, Earthjustice argues on behalf of the conservation groups, the Forest Service has decided to lease a vast swath of nearby public lands without undertaking a thorough environmental review of the combined impacts of all this development on wildlife, water, air quality, and outdoor recreation.

The Forest Service is in violation of the National Forest Management Act, Preso argues in his letter to the agency, because this law requires that "fish and wildlife habitat shall be managed to maintain viable populations of existing native and desired non-native vertebrate species in the planning area."

To estimate the effects of planning alternatives on fish and wildlife, management indicator species must be selected and monitored.

For the Bridger-Teton National Forest, the pine marten was selected as an indicator species for old-growth forests, and the Brewer’s sparrow for sagebrush in the Bridger-Teton National Forest’s Land and Resource Management Plan. But in the 14 years since these species were selected, the Forest Service admits it has not monitored these species.

The plan promised that the Forest Service would identify management indicator species for four more sensitive habitat types - riparian, aspen, mountain meadows, and wetlands. But no species at all have been selected or monitored.

“The Wyoming Range is one of the wildest and most remote mountain ranges in the West, and it holds the only population center of Canada lynx in the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem,” said Preso. “Yet the Forest Service is in a rush to turn this wild country over to the oil and gas companies.”

"These pristine national forest lands in the Wyoming Range offer the best hunting and fishing opportunities in the region,” said Lloyd Dorsey of the Greater Yellowstone Coalition. “Millions of dollars each year flow into local communities from family camping trips, big game hunting, and outfitter-guided recreation, which can be sustained forever unless these forest lands become industrial zones."

"Two years ago the Forest Service took a close look at the impacts of oil and gas leasing in other parts of the Bridger-Teton forest, including the Hoback Basin and Upper Green River, and decided that leasing in those areas wasn’t appropriate," said Peter Aengst of The Wilderness Society. "All we are asking the Forest Service to do is take a close look at the impacts of leasing in the Wyoming Range before it commits that area to oil and gas development."

The Hoback River south of Jackson Hole, Wyoming (Photo credit unknown)

"The proposed pipeline route would cross a number of sensitive resource areas, including waters of the U.S. (streams and wetlands), State of Wyoming wildlife management areas, other wildlife habitats, and recreation areas," the Forest Service says in its proposal. "The project would require a number of crossings of the Hoback River."

Pipeline construction is anticipated to begin in mid-year 2006 and the pipeline should be fully operational by the beginning of the 2006 winter season, the agency says. The pipeline would be installed either by cutting open the river during low flows and burying the pipeline, horizontal directional drilling, or by suspending the pipeline along existing highway bridges.

"The pipeline’s sole purpose is to deliver processed natural gas to the Jackson area. The pipeline would carry processed gas and is not designed to receive natural gas directly from gas wells," the Forest Service says. "Gas resources discovered along the pipeline route would not be added to the proposed pipeline."

The Forest Service will prepare an environmental impact statement to disclose the environmental effects of the proposed project on lands administered by the Big Piney and Jackson Ranger Districts of the Bridger-Teton National Forest.

To offer comments on the gas pipeline proposal, write to Greg Clark, District Ranger, Big Piney Ranger District, Box 218, Big Piney, Wyoming 83113. Comments may be submitted by telephone to Interdisciplinary Team Leader Teresa Trulock at 307-276-3375 in Big Piney.