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Desolation Flats Gas Project Challenged

Groups Take Action to Protect Adobe Town, Powder Rim Linkage

Led by Mike Chiropolos of Western Resource Advocates, conservation groups recently filed a suit with the Interior Board of Land Appeals against the Desolation Flats Natural Gas Project. Due to its urgency, the suit has brought together Western Resource Advocates, Biodiversity Conservation Alliance, The Wilderness Society, Wyoming Outdoor Council, Center for Native Ecosystems, and Wyoming Wilderness Association.

The project in question would convert a major part of Wyoming’s largest and most spectacular desert wilderness into an industrial gas field, and would sever the Powder Rim wildlife linkage. The project, as approved, permits the drilling of 385 natural gas wells, and construction of 542 miles of roads and 361 miles of pipeline across a quarter million acres of public land in the southern Red Desert of Wyoming. The groups are seeking a Stay to prevent drilling while the case is decided.

“This area is prime trophy antelope hunting,” said hunter and Themopolis resident Marilyn Mills. “Lots of hunters try for a permit now, but I for one don’t want to hunt in an oil and gas field!” In its Desolation Flats Environmental Impact Statement, the BLM’s own analysis concluded that “Hunter options to relocate to other hunting areas within the region are becoming increasingly constrained. The extent of oil and gas development in the region makes it difficult to find hunting opportunities in more natural settings where isolation and solitude persist…. There are no areas in the region with the isolation and solitude characteristics of Adobe Town/Monument Valley to which hunters could relocate.” Draft EIS, page 4-91.

“The most productive gas fields in the Red Desert have already been drilled and fully developed,” said Erik Molvar of Biodiversity Conservation Alliance. “Adobe Town is a landscape of national park quality, and its highest use is for the enjoyment and benefit of the public, not as a gas field. The short-term profits available from the marginal deposits of natural gas found here would be miniscule compared to the long-term benefits of protecting this fragile and magnificent area.”

“The BLM has essentially ignored its legal obligations in approving the Desolation Flats project," added Nada Culver of the Wilderness Society's BLM Action Center. "The agency has not even attempted to examine the magnitude of impacts to lands, wildlife, and wilderness resources or to consider alternative, lower-impact methods that could be used, but has still approved full-field development in one of the Red Desert’s most sensitive landscapes.” The suit also points out that the BLM failed to take into account the numerous other drilling projects that it has already approved in the surrounding area, which will place similar stresses on these same resources.

"Anyone who relishes the absolute quiet sanctuary of a cathedral should seek out the Adobe Town wilderness and then work like a dog for its protection. It is by far one of the West's largest and most spectacular desert wildernesses," said Liz Howell of the Wyoming Wilderness Association. "This landscape deserves to be protected for all Americans as a National Monument or Conservation Area, instead of being destroyed by industrial use."

The Red Desert covers approximately 8 million acres between Rock Springs and Rawlins in south-central Wyoming, mostly public lands managed by the Bureau of Land Management. It is a stronghold for high-desert wildlife that is vanishing elsewhere in the West, such as pronghorn antelope, white-tailed prairie dogs, ferruginous hawks, and burrowing owls.

The Desolation Flats project area also bisects the Powder Rim wildlife linkage, which was identified in a science-based, regional-scale habitat mapping project called the Heart of the West Wildlands Network Design. This model examined the relative importance of lands as wildlife habitat based on indicator species such as sage grouse, and identified important core habitats and linkages that permit the dispersal and migration of wildlife throughout the region. Adobe Town lies within the Adobe Town – Vermillion Basin Core, while the Powder Rim Linkage connects this core area with the rich wildlife habitats along the Atlantic Rim. "Drilling has already destroyed most of the Red Desert’s sage grouse breeding habitat south of the interstate," said Erin Robertson, Staff Biologist for Center for Native Ecosystems. "It is especially important that we protect what's left."

“It all boils down to a need for balance,” added Tova Woyciechowicz of Wyoming Outdoor Council. “There are places where drilling is appropriate, but Adobe Town should be spared for wildlife and public enjoyment.”

BLM should defer decisions on drilling these wildlands until it finalizes a larger planning document -- the "Great Divide" plan revision -- that will consider whether these lands should be primarily managed for gas production or for wilderness and wildlife values. The public comment period on a draft plan is expected in fall, 2004.  See Wyoming Outdoor Council and Biodiversity Conservation Alliance Red Desert and Great Divide links for updates and additional information:

http://wyomingoutdoorcouncil.org/programs/reddesert/index.php

http://www.biodiversityassociates.org/greatdivide/index.html