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Groups resist leases in Wyoming Range
Governor ready to enter fray over oil, gas development within 25 miles of Jackson.

By Rebecca Huntington

In a letter that reads like an outline for a lawsuit, conservation and recreation groups are asking the U.S. Forest Service to withdraw oil and gas leases in the Wyoming Range.

In addition, the battle over drilling on the Bridger-Teton National Forest has caught the attention of Gov. Dave Freudenthal, who has ordered his staff to research the state's options for getting involved.

"The governor has serious concerns about leasing in the Bridger-Teton," said the governor's spokeswoman, Lara Azar, on Tuesday. "We have heard a significant amount from constituents, who are also concerned."

Earthjustice attorney Tim Preso said the Forest Service could avoid a court fight by halting lease sales planned for 82 parcels, some within 25 miles of Jackson, in the Wyoming Range.

Preso prepared a 17-page legal analysis of the forest's leasing decision on behalf of eight conservation groups and the National Outdoor Leadership School, which leads educational outings in the Wyoming Range. Preso sent the analysis, in the form of a letter, dated Aug. 18, to Regional Forester Jack Troyer.

The letter contends the Forest Service is violating environmental laws and forest regulations by authorizing the Bureau of Land Management to sell leases on 157,658 acres. The Forest Service failed to adequately study potential environmental impacts, relied on flawed information and has failed to collect key monitoring data, the letter states.

"They've got a leap-first-look-later policy for this leasing, which not only doesn't make sense but also violates the law," Preso said Tuesday.

Bridger-Teton spokeswoman Mary Cernicek said Tuesday that the Forest Service had received the letter and would review it.

"Since it has been elevated to the regional office, we'll work with regional specialists, who were addressed in the letter," Cernicek said. "We'll provide any information the regional office requests in drafting a response."

Oil and gas leasing threatens to industrialize pristine lands valued for recreation, wildlife viewing, hunting and fishing, activities that contribute to the local economy, said Lloyd Dorsey of the Greater Yellowstone Coalition, one of the groups supporting the letter.

"Nearly two thirds of these lands are not roaded," said Dorsey, who has hiked some of the areas proposed for leasing. "You can trek for miles and miles, or ride horseback for miles and miles, and never cross a gravel road."

Industry representatives at the Wyoming Petroleum Association did not return a phone call Tuesday seeking comment on leasing the Wyoming Range.

Leasing means disturbance possible

Preso's letter argues that forest officials are misleading the public and side-stepping legal obligations to take a "hard look" at environmental impacts of the lease sales scheduled for October and December.

Preso took issue, in particular, with statements made by Bridger-Teton Deputy Supervisor Brent Larson in a News&Guide article published July 21. Larson defended the leasing decision by arguing that "leasing does not result in surface disturbance" and "has no effect on the environment."

Preso said those statements ignore previous court rulings and statements by the Forest Service.

In 1983, a U.S. District Court of Appeals rejected the Forest Service's contention that leasing is essentially a paper transaction that will not result in physical or biological impacts, the same argument made by Larson, according to Preso.

In the 1983 opinion, the appeals court wrote: "the decision to allow surface disturbing activities has been made at the leasing stage."

Moreover the appeals court concluded that "once the land is leased the [Agriculture] Secretary cannot preclude surface disturbing activities, in either the exploratory or the development stage."

The Forest Service itself stated, in a February 2003 study on the Bridger-Teton, that "once a lease is issued the opportunity to deny access is irreversible for the life of the lease or the life of the producing field."

Likewise, the Forest Service, in a recent study on the Thunder Basin National Grassland, said it could not consider an option to prohibit surface disturbance on big game winter ranges, calving grounds or wildlife migration routes because the lands had already been leased, according to Preso.

Since leasing is an irretrievable commitment of public resources, federal law requires the Forest Service to study environmental impacts before authorizing a lease sale, Preso states.

The Forest Service has failed to take that mandatory "hard look," he wrote.

Instead the Forest Service is relying on decade-old studies and more recent documents, which were not circulated to the public and contain misinformation, according to Preso.

For example, instead of doing their own analysis of potential impacts to air quality, Bridger-Teton officials relied on a study prepared for oil and gas drilling on the Pinedale Anticline, south of Jackson.

That study projected reductions in visibility in Grand Teton National Park and the Bridger and Fitzpatrick Wilderness areas, according to Preso.

Study outdated, no longer accurate

Even so, the Forest Service concluded that visibility impacts were "within an acceptable range" and would be offset by reductions in emissions after upgrades at the Naughton power plant by Ultra Petroleum.

According to Preso, the Forest Service mistakenly assumed the Pinedale study included the Bridger-Teton in its analysis. The BLM study considered up to 20 wells on the forest but not the 90 new wells the Bridger-Teton estimates could be drilled, Preso states.

"If somebody at the Forest Service thinks the 90 wells are in there, I'd be interested to see where," Preso said.

Moreover, the Pinedale study is outdated and no longer accurately reflects conditions, he said.

The 1999 study projected 1,944 wells as a reasonable foreseeable development future in the Pinedale Resource Management Area, he said. With a drilling boom underway, there are now 2,393 wells in Sublette County alone, which does not cover the entire resource area, Preso said. BLM is projecting thousands more.

Indicator species information missing

In addition, coalbed methane development in the Powder River Basin could impact air quality on the Bridger-Teton and was not considered by the Forest Service, he said.

"The Forest Service has not even taken the most meager attempt to look at all of that development just next door and to look at incremental impact," Preso said.

The Forest Service also failed to study the potential for coalbed methane on the Bridger-Teton even though the BLM pointed out that information gap, Preso wrote.

His letter also contends the Bridger-Teton is not in a position to even detect whether its actions are degrading forest resources because the agency has shirked past promises to monitor key wildlife species.

In the Bridger-Teton Land and Resource Management Plan, approved in 1990, the Forest Service identified two "ecological indicator species" and promised to identify four more.

The Forest Service selected the pine marten as a species that indicates the health of old growth forests and the Brewer's sparrow for sagebrush. The Forest Service has failed to begin amassing basic monitoring data on either species, despite commitments made 14 years ago in the forest plan, he wrote.

In addition, the agency has never identified the four additional species meant to indicate the health of riparian, aspen, mountain meadow and wetland habitats, he wrote.

Said Preso: "You don't know whether what you're doing is going to trash wildlife when the system you, the Forest Service, designed to protect wildlife has never been put in place."

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