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Gas hit seen as wildlife threat
Coal bed methane discovery in Sublette County could hinder Grand Teton migration.

By Whitney Royster

A coal bed methane gas discovery on the west side of Sublette County has alarmed conservationists worried about wildlife migrating from Grand Teton National Park.

Officials from the Bureau of Land Management this week confirmed that several wells drilled in the Riley Ridge area near Big Piney hit the lucrative gas reserve. Coal bed methane discoveries in the Powder River basin of western Wyoming have produced a boom there that has overwhelmed the landscape and upset ranchers and conservationists.

While the Sublette County discovery may be deeper and more difficult to recover, conservationists say it adds a new threat to wildlife in the Green River Basin, a high-altitude wintering ground for 100,000 antelope, deer, elk, and sage grouse, some of which migrate the 170 miles from Grand Teton. Regardless of recent methane discovery, companies already have developed several huge fields and are doing seismic exploration ­ the Merna 3-D project ­ in a steady march north toward Teton County.

"This is the worst possible location for this kind of energy project," said Scott Groene of the Greater Yellowstone Coalition, which joined with other environmental groups Monday to appeal the seismic project. The battle ground is crucial winter range, transition range and wildlife migration corridors, he said.

Linda Baker, a Sublette resident consulting for several environmental groups, said she's afraid the windswept sagebrush landscape at about 7,000 feet will become industrialized.

"That's our greatest fear," she said, "that this whole valley will be covered by oil and gas wells."

The BLM is in charge of overseeing development, an agency critics say is industry-friendly and willing to cave in to pressure from the Bush administration. BLM officials say regulations will protect wildlife, and Pinedale area manager Prill Mecham cautioned about reading too much into the methane hit.

In the Powder River Basin, the methane gas lies close to the surface and companies have rushed to construct roads and set up drill pads, pumping out ground water and letting it flow to release the buried treasure. Mecham said Sublette County is different.

"The coal bed methane is much deeper on the whole and is a different type of extraction than that in the Powder River Basin," she said. "It's like a traditional deep gas well."

Mecham said it was too early to know how much it would cost to extract.

"We are talking with companies right now and working with them on proposals," she said. "There is nothing formal and no real timeline."

BLM studies point to the country's need for energy, lease restrictions limiting disturbance to some wildlife areas, and the revenue and taxes from development as positive aspects. They say a 1988 plan governing BLM land in Sublette County is adequate to control the boom and point to development of private land as another issue affecting wildlife.

But energy development in the valley that stretches between the Wind River Range and Wyoming Range has been pushing steadily north. Each well pad takes up about four acres.

At Riley Ridge, located on the western edge of the valley, 238 wells were approved in 1984. Just east, near Big Piney, another 500 wells were approved in 1991, adding to the 1,080 already in the field known as the CAP area. South, near Fontenelle Reservoir, the BLM approved 1,292 wells in 1996, adding to the 907 already there.

At the Johna II field on the valley's eastern side, the BLM in 1998 gave the go-ahead for 450 wells. Just north on the Pinedale Anticline, the agency anticipates 700 well pads, bringing development north to the town of Pinedale.

And now exploration is extending north. The just-approved Merna 3-D seismic project, which environmentalists appealed last week, extends from Pinedale north past Daniel Junction and Merna to The Rim. Over The Rim, the divide between the Green and Hoback rivers, lies Bridger-Teton National Forest Management Area 21, a 72,400-acre area coveted by energy explorers.

The area encompasses the town of Bondurant and the Hoback Basin. Experts estimate up to 87 wells could be drilled in that area and the Forest Service is revising studies to allow leasing to take place.

For the Merna seismic project, the BLM approved the use of thumper trucks, ATVs, helicopters and other machines, drill holes and explosives to create an underground map of 267 square miles.

Environmentalists are trying to draw the line with the Merna project. Their appeal was filed in what they called "an ongoing effort to try to give some balance to this energy boom."

"The appeal is trying to stop the threat to this extraordinary wildlife resource," Groene said. The Sierra Club, Wilderness Society, Jackson Hole Conservation Alliance, Wyoming Outdoor Council and Natural Resources Defense Council joined the GYC in the appeal.

The groups said the project, expected to begin immediately and continue for three to five months, perhaps 24 hours a day, is in key winter range and wildlife corridors for antelope mule deer and sage grouse.

Groene said the BLM failed to uphold the law by neglecting to analyze the cumulative impacts development will have.

BLM natural resources specialist Bill Lanning acknowledged that seismic vehicles, including ATVs and trucks, will drive over sagebrush and kill vegetation. But he said the trucks move along at a "fairly good pace. They're not disrupting wildlife continuously."

Conservationists say the seismic exploration will flatten eight square miles of vegetation. Only 37 percent of the Merna Project will be on BLM lands. The rest is private.

Officials from the Pinedale BLM office said the agency works with the Wyoming Game and Fish Department to minimize impacts to wildlife. But last month the BLM leased two tracts in a critical half-mile-wide antelope migration bottleneck at Trapper's Point.

Only when consultant Baker discovered the lease sale and the Game and Fish wrote a letter did Mecham withdraw the leases. Bernie Holz, Game and Fish Jackson area supervisor who lives in Pinedale, said his agency didn't have a good system to track the leases.

"We sure wouldn't want to turn a migration corridor into a migration bottleneck," he said Tuesday.

But Holz said there are areas around the state with active oil and gas development where deer herds are thriving and cautioned that he has to pick his battles carefully. Deer winter around Big Piney and La Barge, an area Holz said has been developed since the 1920s.

"The deer herd is relatively robust," he said. "There are things other than oil and gas that affect winter range," like the ability to improve habitat.

"The energy and gas exploration policies aren't something I will have a huge effect on," Holz said. "I'm trying to keep my eye on the ball and see places that should be protected. I feel I'm going to be a lot more credible if I'm not trying to stop oil and gas anywhere it's trying to occur."

The BLM's Mecham said the bottleneck areas around Trapper's Point in Cora will be held from leasing until a new Pinedale Resource Management Plan is completed ­ expected in 2004. But environmentalists say the agency's acknowledgment that a new plan is needed means the BLM should not approve any new development now.

"The agency is relying on data that is 15 years old," Groene said. "It is no longer legally valid for supporting this level of development. There needs to be some flexibility on protecting some things."

Groene suggested the BLM put a moratorium on new leases until the new plan is completed.

"The current plan has no analysis to determine the breaking point for wildlife and for air and water quality issues," he said. "The agency has the green light [to issue leases] and they can't say what is too much and have they reached that point."

BLM officials disagree.
"That's what we're using for now," Mecham said of the old plan. "We have an existing plan in place and we are operating under that plan."

In their appeal, conservationists say a panel from the North American Wildlife and Natural Resources Conference says the migrations of mule deer and antelope are "exceptional," coming from Grand Teton National Park. In part, the study said transition range for these animals, range eyed for development, was crucial.

Sage grouse, too, winter in Sublette County and conservation groups say the birds have been pushed north from the Jonah Field into the Anticline Field, and their time there may be limited. The animal has been struggling in recent years.

Mecham said there are environmental safeguards to protect wildlife, including a restriction on drilling on crucial winter ranges from November to April. But critics say energy companies too often request ­ and receive ­ waivers to restrictions. More than 80 percent of those requested have been granted, they say.

Holz said there are a variety of factors that go into the BLM's decision to grant waivers, including location of herds. For example, if no snow is on the ground and no deer are in an area, a waiver might be issued.

"Ultimately we know these places will be drilled," he said. Drought conditions may prevent waivers, he said.

"I would be concerned if there were full-field development on crucial winter range," he said.

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