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Our Work in Lands


The stunning landscapes of the West are legendary, cherished by residents and visitors alike. Yet the lands we love are at risk. They have been scarred by a succession of extractive industries ranging from hard rock mining to logging, and now from intensive energy development. We advocate for sound stewardship in the face of forces that view our public lands solely as a commercial resource. At Western Resource Advocates, we are committed to safeguarding the ecological integrity of our treasured public lands and wildlife.

Lands Program News:

Other Recent Developments


 

WYOMING: Protecting Sage Grouse Habitat in Pinedale Resource Area

WRA is working closely with Audubon to protect Wyoming's greater sage-grouse from impacts caused by oil and gas development, specifically by:

1) protesting the sale of oil and gas leases covering hundreds of thousands of acres of "core" sage-grouse habitat (nesting, strutting and brood rearing areas); and

2) by challenging BLM's proposed Resource Management Plan for the Pinedale area, comprising tens of thousands of acres of important sage-grouse core population areas.

WYOMING: Limiting Air Pollution in Pinedale Gas Fields

WRA is partnering with the Upper Green River Valley Coalition to ensure that emissions from increased oil and gas activities in the booming Pinedale Anticline field do not contribute to further degradation of visibility in Class I wilderness areas, cause air quality violations or unhealthy levels of ground level ozone. Pinedale, a rural Wyoming town with a population of less than 2,000, has experienced ground-level ozone pollution worse than Los Angeles at times due to excessive emissions produced by oil and gas drilling activities.

WYOMING: Stopping Drilling Contamination in Pavillion

Pavillion is a small farming community in central Wyoming experiencing rapid growth in oil and gas drilling. Because of air and water contamination problems resulting from the drilling activity, WRA is working with local groups to press Wyoming's Department of Environmental Quality for stronger controls on oil and gas production facilities to protect the health of local residents.

WYOMING: Providing Citizens with Information on Toxic Drilling Chemicals

WRA is assisting the Oil and Gas Accountability Project (OGAP) and coalition of individuals and organizations across Wyoming to gain access to information about chemicals used by the oil and gas industry under the Emergency Planning and Community Right to Know law. A number of toxic chemicals can be used in the oil and gas drilling process and citizens can be exposed to them through spills, vapors and water wells contaminated through " fracing," a process that breaks apart tight underground formations using chemicals, water, sand and extreme hydraulic pressure.

WYOMING: Human Health Needs to Factor into Oil and Gas Drilling Expansion

WRA, local citizens and grass roots groups in Pinedale and Pavillion are working to persuade the BLM to prepare Health Impact Assessments for large natural gas development projects proposed on public lands. These assessments will take into account the human public health and environmental health impacts of Wyoming's explosive growth in oil and gas drilling. Area residents have felt the detrimental effects to local air and water quality due to the drilling. With proposals to more than double the current number of wells in the Pinedale Anticline in the works, Wyoming residents are pressing to have their health concerns taken into account in the decision-making process.