On December 8, 2004, the BLM Pinedale Field Office and Bridger-Teton National Forest sent a letter to Exxon-Mobil Oil Corporation and Wexpro Company informing them that they would not approve new oil and gas drilling permits in the Riley Ridge Project Area until a supplemental environmental impact statement is prepared. This news was welcomed by the Wyoming Outdoor Council, which along with Defenders of Wildlife, has worked for the last three years to convince the agencies new environmental analysis was needed before further development should occur.

The Riley Ridge area is located southwest of Big Piney. A transition zone into the Wyoming Range, Riley Ridge is covered with lodgepole pine, aspen and sagebrush, and is home to Canada lynx, mule deer, elk, moose, and the rare Colorado River cutthroat trout. Riley Ridge is a “working landscape” with a number of existing oil and gas wells, roads, and old clear cuts. It also contains many special features and is popular for hunting and recreation. BLM’s Lake Mountain Wilderness Study Area is on the southwest flank of the ridgeline, and several Forest Service roadless areas are in the vicinity.

The letter to Exxon-Mobil and Wexpro Company, two of the major operators in the area, pointed out that there were significant new issues that had not been adequately addressed in the 21-year-old Riley Ridge Natural Gas Project Environmental Impact Statement, which made moving ahead with more oil and gas drilling inappropriate. These included air-quality issues, impacts to the lynx, a change in the kinds of gas being drilled, and much denser well spacing.

According to the BLM’s letter, the event triggering the agencies’ decision to call a time out while these impacts were analyzed was a “recent influx of proposed oil and gas activity.”

The Wyoming Outdoor Council and Defenders of Wildlife have been tracking and registering issues regarding this exploding development for the last three years. Our primary concern revolves around the lynx, but increasingly we have been pointing out to the agencies that the entire Riley Ridge Environmental Impact Statement—which was a joint undertaking of the BLM and Forest Service in 1984—needs to be updated. In our minds, using that document to justify management actions is the equivalent of someone relying on a 21-year-old medical check-up to make important health decisions.

Apparently the agencies finally heard our concerns and made the right decision to put drilling on hold until the impacts, and ways to reduce them, are adequately considered in a new environmental impact statement. Now the challenge is to be fully involved in the new environmental review process.