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Welcome to Western Resource Advocates' Lands Program! Here, you'll find updates and information about our recent work and achievements. You can use the buttons to the right for more information about the Lands Program's top four project areas.

WRA: Lands

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  Chaco Canyon Off Limits to Oil and Gas Drilling: Conservationists and Tribes Succeed in Pulling Parcels from Auction Block

  
  

  Western Resource Advocates has convinced the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) to withdraw eight proposed lease parcels, covering 10,361 acres, from the upcoming October 21 lease auction. These proposed leases are located within five miles of Chaco Culture National Historical Park in northwest New Mexico, a World Heritage Site that is one of the top attractions on the "Trail of the Ancients" through the Four Corners region.  

  "It's hard to imagine a more inappropriate location for gas drilling," said Western Resource Advocates' Lands Program Director Mike Chiropolos.  "Visitors from around the world are drawn to this area because of its significance.  Their experience of mystery, culture and history would be shattered by industrial development on the park's doorstep." 

  In proposing these areas for oil and gas development. the BLM failed to consult with the many Pueblo Tribes with ancestral ties to these lands, as required by the National Historic Preservation Act.  The Hopi Tribe objected to oil and gas leasing on lands they call "the Place Beyond the Horizon," entitled to protection as a Traditional Cultural Property under federal law.  The rich archeological sites on these lands include ancient masonry dwellings, kivas, middens, and hearths.

  To defeat the leasing proposal, Western Resource Advocates worked closely with San Juan Citizens Alliance, New Mexico Wilderness Alliance, Diné CARE, the Chaco Alliance, and the National Trust for Historic Preservation.  These groups are working toward permanent protection for Greater Chaco Canyon.

• WRA’s Work on Wyoming Range Pays Off

The Bureau of Land Management is withdrawing tens of thousands of acres of contested oil and gas leases in the Wyoming Range. The leases were pulled after passage of the Wyoming Range Legacy Act, a groundbreaking bipartisan law that withdraws the area from energy development. Efforts by Western Resource Advocates (WRA), in conjunction with the Wyoming Outdoor Council, aided in passage of the Act.

In a state significantly scarred by aggressive oil and gas drilling, the Wyoming Range is a place state residents are unwilling to let suffer the same fate as the nearby Pinedale and Jonah gas fields.

The Wyoming Range is the largest roadless area remaining in the Bridger-Teton National Forest. It holds considerable value to Wyoming for its abundant recreational opportunities and the richness of its wildlife. Because of this, it is a vital economic asset for the region, especially to the hunting and fishing outfitting community whose livelihoods depend upon this area.

When vast areas of the Wyoming Range were auctioned in violation of laws requiring the BLM and U.S. Forest Service to analyze impacts of future drilling on wildlife and local recreation businesses, WRA appealed the sale. WRA’s lease challenge prevailed, giving citizen groups in Wyoming the opportunity to build formidable local support for federal legislation permanently protecting these lands.

“Passage of the Legacy Act shows that a small group of dedicated people can succeed at protecting our public lands against all odds,” said WRA Lands Program Director Mike Chiropolos. “When we first took this case, the chances of winning in the long run were minimal because the federal bureaucracy seemed to be in the pocket of energy companies. But Wyoming’s elected officials got behind the outfitters and sportsmen who love the Wyoming Range as it is. It’s a sweet victory for those who fought to protect this rugged mountain range.”

The BLM is withdrawing 12 proposed leases covering approximately 24,000 acres in the Wyoming Range, though an additional 20,000 acres of contested leases still remain in dispute.

WRA’s clients in the case were National Outdoor Leadership School, Trout Unlimited and three local outfitter/guide businesses: Greys River Trophies, Hoback Peak Outfitters, and Trophy Mountain Outfitters.

• WRA Holds BLM Accountable on Jonah Field Enforcement

WRA filed a suit against the Bureau of Land Management for failing to be forthcoming about its enforcement of environmental mitigation requirements in the Jonah Field Infill Project. The Jonah Field in Wyoming is a stark example of the damage that can occur with intensive natural gas production. The BLM, as part of its directive in managing the Jonah Field Infill Project, is supposed to ensure that proper mitigation of drilling impacts is taking place and provide the documentation to prove it.

WRA filed its claims against the BLM after an initial attempt to obtain public records on mitigation activities was not met and a second request was similarly ignored by the BLM.

The lack of cooperation by the BLM and internal correspondence obtained from the nearby Pinedale Anticline gas field indicate there is reason to be suspicious about BLM enforcement of its own guidelines. The Jonah field has suffered from declines in animal populations, very poor air quality, and complaints of impaired water quality since gas drilling began booming in the area. The Infill Project proposes drilling 3,100 new wells in an area that already has over 500 wells drilled. The project permits around 20,409 acres of surface disturbance out of an area of 30,550 total acres. The mitigation activity WRA is monitoring affects the health and well-being of the human population in the region, as well as the health of the rest of the ecosystem.

A report from the region's Wyoming Tribune Eagle newspaper has more information.

• Forest Service Withdraws 100,000 Acres from Oil and Gas Leasing

WRA and others convinced the U.S. ForestService to pull 100,000 acres of special western Colorado lands from a February 2009 oil and gas lease sale. With the change in administrations, it is unlikely that these sensitive areas will return to the auction block.

The withdrawn lands are in the Grand Mesa, Uncompahgre, and Gunnison National Forests. Had the lease sale gone through, drilling could have occurred on large swaths of roadless areas, including a municipal watershed, crucial habitat for the imperiled sage grouse, and prime native cutthroat trout habitat.

• Ferret Habitat Removed from Oil and Gas Lease Sale

The Bureau of Land Management (BLM) removed six disputed parcels from an oil and gas lease auction after WRA challenged the inclusion of these parcels located in a black-footed ferret reintroduction area. WRA argued that BLM needed to consult with wildlife experts and consider the most recent scientific data on how leasing could impact the reintroduced population of the ferret, the most endangered mammal in North America. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is working to bring endangered ferret populations back to self-sustaining levels. The BLM agreed with WRA’s assessment.

This marks WRA’s third consecutive victory for the black-footed ferret. According to Lands Program Director Mike Chiropolos, “we’re heartened that, under Secretary Salazar, BLM is recognizing the need for sound scientific review before offering leases. Under the prior administration, we were forced to litigate these cases before the Department of Interior’s appeals board to win protections for the ferret.”

WRA brought the case on behalf of Center for Native Ecosystems and the Colorado Environmental Coalition. (Posted 05/15/09)

• IBLA Rules in Favor of WRA to Preserve Historical Treasures

The Interior Board of Land Appeals(IBLA) agreed with WRA that the Bureau of Land Management failed to adequately protect historical sites in Utah's Red Rock country when issuing grazing leases. Click here to read more on the decision.

• WRA Prevails in Utah Supreme Court Case on Open Records

WRA contested and prevailed over the State of Utah's claim to be able to hide records from public view regarding the state's claim to rights of way over federal lands. For more on this case, click here.

• Colorado Moves Forward with New Oil and Gas Rules

In late September, the Colorado Oil and Gas Conservation Commission (COGCC) approved a sweeping set of new rules governing oil and gas drilling in the state. This broad set of reforms will require the oil and gas industry to implement new safeguards to better protect Colorado’s water supplies, air quality, lands, and wildlife. Although substantial compromise was required by all participants in the rulemaking process, the end result is improved protection from the activities of a booming energy industry.

After his election, Governor Bill Ritter changed the make-up of the COGCC, turning it from a board dominated by the industry to one more representative of other perspectives. The new commission responded to citizen concerns about the failure of outmoded oil and gas drilling rules to protect the state from the negative environmental and social impacts of an extraordinary drilling boom.

WRA attorneys represented a coalition of environmental groups in the rulemaking proceedings and played a large role in providing expert testimony and battling industry efforts to water down or eliminate needed protections.

Among the changes in the rules were measures to protect drinking water and wildlife habitat, control odor and dust, and require disclosure of toxic chemicals used in the drilling process. Rules regarding the safety of open waste pits, which often contain toxic substances, were deferred for future deliberations.

Colorado’s approach of reassessing a broad array of regulations all at once sets a precedent for other states similarly confronting drilling booms. Some of the approved rules break new ground, while others bring Colorado closer to the protections imposed by neighboring states

• Saved from the Drill: WRA Pushes Back Against Questionable Southern Colorado Lease Sale




WRA successfully challenged the inclusion of 145,000 acres of Rio Grande National Forest in a Bureau of Land Management (BLM) oil and gas lease sale, forcing the withdrawal of that acreage from the sale. The Rio Grande National Forest is not known to have extensive oil and gas resources. The lease proposal shocked local residents, who questioned its size as well as the inclusion of high-value forestlands in an area with questionable oil and gas deposits.

WRA successfully argued that the federal agencies had not carried out any analysis of the environmental impacts of drilling in the forest since 1995, when only 23 additional wells were planned. The proposed leasing of more than 145,000 acres could result in hundreds, if not thousands, of wells. The impacts to the forest of this monumental increase in drilling had not been considered by the BLM. The BLM rescinded the lease sale until a more thorough analysis can be done.

“Not leasing now was the right decision,” said WRA Lands Program Director Mike Chiropolos. “By stepping back to ‘look before it leaps,’ the Forest Service avoided repeating the mistakes it has made on other National Forests across the Rockies.”

The initial lease sale, which was scheduled to occur on May 8th, put more than 175,000 acres up for lease in 14 Colorado counties. The vast majority of these lands were in the Rio Grande National Forest, which had not had a single acre leased for oil and gas drilling since 1994.

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.