IN THE COURTS
Oil and Gas Lease Sale Protests and Appeals. WOC currently has four appeals before the Interior Board of Land Appeals (IBLA) and two protests of lease sales that have not yet been decided by the BLM. Three of the IBLA appeals raise issues related to coalbed methane (CBM) development in the Rawlins Field Office. One of the appeals raises issues related to public participation in lease sales and the ability of BLM to sell leases when it is in the process of revising its land use plan. Governor Freudenthal raised this same issue in his protest of the June 2004 lease sale.

With the important 10th Circuit Pennaco decision (see page 1), we anticipate the BLM will give our lease protests more thorough consideration and the IBLA appeals will be more likely to be resolved in our favor relative to CBM issues. We will continue to file protests and appeals where serious concerns regarding adequate pre-leasing analysis, public participation and endangered species exist.
Contact: Bruce Pendery

GREATER YELLOWSTONE ECOSYSTEM/UPPER GREEN RIVER VALLEY
Bridger-Teton Oil and Gas Leasing in the Wyoming Range.We won an important victory this September thanks to hundreds of emails, faxes, and letters from people like you to the Forest Service, and to both Gov. Freudenthal and Senator Craig Thomas. The Bridger-Teton National Forest will not lease 157,000 acres—much of it roadless parts of the Wyoming Range—for oil and gas development until it can evaluate the concerns raised by the public, the governor and Senator Thomas. The leases were scheduled to go on the auction block October 5.

Located west of Pinedale adjacent to the Upper Green River Valley and the upper Hoback region, the proposed leases feature world-class big game habitat and outstanding opportunities for hunting, camping, cross-country skiing, and fishing. It provides vital year-round habitat for elk, pronghorn, moose and mule deer. Streams here harbor some of Wyoming’s last populations of native Colorado River cutthroat trout and are a stronghold for Snake River cutthroat. Other imperiled species that find refuge here include northern goshawk, Canada lynx, gray wolf, wolverine and grizzly bear.

The decision to withhold the oil and gas leasing was made by Regional Forester, Jack Troyer, head of the agency’s Intermountain Region office in Ogden, Utah, at the request of Gov. Freudenthal. Jay Anderson, a spokesperson for the Bridger-Teton in Jackson, said that the decision shows the Forest Service is "responding to public interest in the lands we manage."

The Forest Service will now have time to reevaluate the criteria it used to identify the parcels for leasing in the first place. WOC, and our conservation partners, had argued that this criteria was outdated. The analysis was conducted in the early 90s, prior to the natural gas boom in the neighboring Upper Green River Valley, as well as changes in status of wildlife in the area such as the listing of the Canada lynx. Gov. Freudenthal applauded the Forest Service’s decision. In a press release he said, "I continue to fully support Wyoming’s oil and gas industry, but development needs to occur in a deliberate fashion that takes into account all the impacts it brings."

This is exactly what WOC has been saying all along. Our voice has been heard and these lands remain protected…at least for now.
Contact: Marisa Martin

Questar Winter Drilling. Questar has submitted its proposal to the BLM to drill year round for the next nine years on the Pinedale Anticline. WOC has been actively involved in the issue, commenting on the scoping for the Environmental Assessment and attending meetings to voice our concerns. While we are pleased with the mitigation measures Questar has included in its proposal, which include things like condensate pipelines, reduced truck trips in the Mesa, and flareless completions, we fear that year-round drilling in crucial winter range would adversely affect mule deer by disturbing the animals when they are most vulnerable. Allowing Questar to winter drill in crucial winter range would be a reversal of longstanding BLM policy without adequate consideration of the impacts. A draft Environmental Assessment is due out this fall.

Briefing and oral arguments in WOC’s federal litigation regarding an exception to winter drilling restrictions on the Pinedale Anticline granted to Questar in 2002 were completed this summer. The case is currently under review by U.S. District Court Judge Johnson.
Contact: Marisa Martin

Togwotee Highway Reconstruction. Marisa Martin and Meredith Taylor continue to serve on the Togwotee Highway Reconstruction Project’s advisory committee as WOC conservation representatives. This summer, the committee examined data from wildlife biologists Cliff Nietfelt and Hall Sawyer indicating hotspots for wildlife crossings and potential roadkill along the Buffalo Fork section of the highway. Agreement has been reached to accommodate wildlife crossing under the Buffalo Fork bridge by making the bridge longer. The committee also discussed a snowmobile trail along the highway, pull-outs for passing or scenic views, and wetland and wildlife mitigation. A Scenic Byway Design Workshop is planned for later this year to educate the advisory committee on other possibilities available within the National Centennial Scenic Byway System.
Contact: Marisa Martin and Meredith Taylor

Restoring Wild Patterns. Meredith Taylor is working on a feasibility study for the phase out of three Gros Ventre elk feedlots. Her study looks at the how much forage is available for elk during the winter in the area and compares it to forage in the Buffalo Valley/Spread Creek area where elk are not fed on feed grounds during the winter. The study will examine whether the forage in the Gros Ventre can sustain the Wyoming Game and Fish’s elk herd objective without supplemental feeding, as well as what it will take to restore the forage to a level that will support the herd if the current vegetation is found to be inadequate. WOC intends to use this information to implement Restoring Wild Pattern goals such as protecting and restoring native habitat, and encouraging the phase-out of unnecessary elk feeding grounds. Contact: Meredith Taylor

Bighorn National Forest Plan Revision. The Bighorn National Forest Plan Revision’s draft Environmental Impact Statement was released this summer. Public comments are due September 30th. The draft includes several alternatives. WOC believes the preferred alternative—Alternative D—does not do enough to protect the forest. Rather, we support the adoption of Alternative C. Alternative C has the lowest logging level, the fewest miles of roads, more recommended Wilderness, the best protections for wildlife, more recommended Wild and Scenic Rivers, and better backcountry recreation allocations. The timber industry is promoting Alternative E, which opens all suitable lands to logging, including pristine roadless areas, stream buffer zones, and elk security cover areas. Alternative E will put all roadless areas into the "suitable timber base" and allow for no additional wilderness protections, wild and scenic classifications or research natural areas. View the EIS.
Contact: Marisa Martin

STATEWIDE
Wolf Delisting. WOC, along with several other conservation groups, was recently granted ‘intervener’ status in the state of Wyoming’s lawsuit against the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service for its rejection of Wyoming’s wolf plan. WOC is supporting the federal government’s decision to reject the state wolf plan in court because we believe the USFWS’s decision was based on science and common sense and we want to ensure that this position is effectively presented. In our opinion, shooting wolves on-sight in 90 percent of current Wyoming wolf habitat outside national parks and Wilderness areas is not responsible management for an animal just removed from protection under the Endangered Species Act. We are not alone in this position. More than half (7 out of 11) of the national wolf biology experts had serious concerns about Wyoming’s plan. In addition, Wyoming received at least three letters from USFWS officials, including one from the director, notifying the State that their plan was not going to work as proposed.
Contact: Marisa Martin

WATERSHEDS
WOC challenges Army Corps of Engineers general permit for CBM reservoirs in court. A fall court date has been set for WOC, together with Earthjustice. to argue their case against the Army Corps of Engineers’ general permit for coalbed methane containment ponds before Judge Downes in federal district court. WOC’s case asserts that the Corps’ decision to allow the construction of thousands of reservoirs in the drainages of the Powder River Basin and elsewhere constituted a major environmental impact and that individual permits for those reservoirs are mandated by the Clean Water Act.

The reservoirs in question are being built to hold produced water, which is a byproduct of coalbed methane drilling in the basin. These reservoirs cause devastating impacts on the basin’s ecology by disrupting stream flows, and on area ranchers because the water’s high salt content limits its use for irrigation. Currently, the Corps is allowing the construction of these reservoirs under a "general permit" that requires neither notification nor approval by the Corps for individual ponds.
Contact: Steve Jones

DEQ regulations for discharge permits strengthened to protect aquifers. Some good news recently came from the Wyoming Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ). Acknowledging concerns WOC has been raising for years about CBM impacts to groundwater quality, the DEQ has announced that in order to obtain a discharge permit in the future, CBM developers must demonstrate that the water they intend to discharge will not threaten or pollute the groundwater aquifers below. Currently, this water is being stored in unlined reservoirs designed to leak back into the ground where it has the potential to affect the underlying aquifer. Forcing the drilling companies to prove that their operations will not pollute groundwater is a major step forward. Up until now, the DEQ, as well as industry, has simply been ignoring the issue, believing that "out of sight is out of mind." We are pleased to see such positive fruits of our persistent advocacy on a resource – groundwater – that is so critical to our arid state.
Contact: Steve Jones

Revisions to the Wyoming Water Quality Rules and Regulations. The Environmental Quality Council approved Chapter 2 of the Wyoming Water Quality Rules and Regulations on August 18, 2004. This chapter had not been revised since 1974 and needed updating. Unfortunately, the revisions raise several concerns. Most importantly, the DEQ intends to broaden its ability to issue general permits, which would mean less opportunity for public involvement. Under the new regulations, the public only has one chance to challenge a general permit: when it is issued, but not when it is actually put into place at a particular site. We urge all our members to contact Governor Freudenthal and tell him that DEQ needs to start over, rather than adopting these flawed regulations.
Contact: Steve Jones

RED DESERT/GREAT DIVIDE CAMPAIGN
Rawlins Resource Management Plan. The most recent information reports that the Draft EIS for the Rawlins Resource Manage-ment Plan will be released in early October. Your involvement in responding to the plan is very important. Please stay tuned for action alerts and check our website for updates.
Contact: Tova Woyciechowicz

Jack Morrow Hills Environmental Impact Statement. On August 16, WOC, together with the Biodiversity Conservation Alliance, Sierra Club, and The Wilderness Society, protested BLM’s Final Environmental Impact Statement and proposed management plan for the Jack Morrow Hills area. The plan, while reflecting the success of our unprecedented advocacy with some positive provisions, would still allow a rush to drill oil and gas wells that would be extremely harmful to big game, sage grouse, and many other resources. Approximately 60 percent of the study area—349,250 acres—has "no wildlife protections."

Additionally, the plan does not allow the BLM to either maintain lease suspensions currently in effect nor to aggressively seek to buyout or trade existing leases. Thus, since much of the area is already leased— 230,693 acres out of the 622,430 acre planning area—many of its unique historical, archeological, scenic, and wildlife values would not be adequately protected. We hope BLM will carefully consider our protest and modify its proposed plan, but if it fails to do so, litigation may be necessary to protect this incredible area.
Contact: Tova Woyciechowicz

Television coverage for the Red Desert and Great Divide. Just as the Jack Morrow Hills EIS hit the streets and the formal protest began, WOC’s Red Desert news package hit the prime-time. All three of Wyoming’s major television networks aired our eight-part series on the Red Desert, which was co-produced by WOC’s director of communications, Leslie Gaines, and news anchor Greg Fladager of KGWC-TV (CBS) in Casper.

The program covered a wide range of topics including pre-history, history, and geology of the Red Desert. WOC’s former executive director, Dan Heilig, was shown discussing the reasons conservationists are protesting parts of the Jack Morrow Hills EIS. Additionally, the Casper Star-Tribune ran a front-page story highlighting the series, thereby providing an extra dose of coverage for Red Desert issues. Footage from the Red Desert series and from an Adobe Town film shoot, which also took place this summer, were used in a late August national broadcast by Bill Moyers’ NOW on PBS.
Contact: Tova Woyciechowicz