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Forest won't lease near Gros Ventre Wilderness
Supervisor will reconsider oil and gas development when Forest Plan is revised.

By Rebecca Huntington

A Bridger-Teton National Forest decision to keep 376,000 acres off limits to oil and gas drilling disappointed the petroleum industry but pleased conservationists.

Forest supervisor Kniffy Hamilton made the decision Friday, saying that lands in the Hoback and Moccasin basins, along the upper Green River and near Union Pass and Kinky Creek Divide should remain as they are. The decision affects land around the Gros Ventre Wilderness and between it and the Bridger Wilderness. The decision will be reconsidered when the forest's plan is revised several years from now.

Dru Bower, vice president of the Petroleum Association of Wyoming, expressed displeasure. "Obviously, the oil and gas industry is disappointed in the no-leasing decision," she said.

Industry was particularly interested in the 72,000-acre Hoback Basin and the southern portion of the Upper Green River Basin. They may hold 80.6 trillion cubic feet of natural gas, Bower said. That's about a four-year supply for the U.S., but not all of it may be extractable.

"It's a tremendous amount of gas," Bower said Monday. "We believe that when an area has a significant potential for development, which the Hoback Basin does, that it's irresponsible to withdraw it for leasing."

Wyoming State Geologist Lance Cook agreed those areas have a potential significant resource. But whether the gas is economically recoverable remains unknown, he said.

The gas is contained in tight sands, which means it is caught in small pore spaces between sand grains, making it a challenge to extract. The rock must be fractured to free the gas, Cook said. Extracting gas from such formations typically requires more technology, more cost and more wells. Often those wells are closely spaced, increasing environmental impacts.

Nevertheless, gas drilling operations in the Pinedale Anticline have found ways to release tight sands gas that is economically viable, Cook said. However, whether industry could come up with methods to make the Hoback Basin a profitable development remains uncertain because no test wells have ever been drilled, he said. Test wells are needed to determine how recoverable the resource is, he said.

"That's one of the quandaries that the oil industry has always faced," he said, "and that's what makes it a risky business."

While the no-drilling decision disappointed industry, conservationists lauded Hamilton for her decision.

"It's terrific that they made the decision to close these areas," said Scott Groene of the Greater Yellowstone Coalition.

Likewise, the Wyoming Outdoor Council's Yellowstone Program Director Meredith Taylor said the decision reflected public sentiment, which opposed "developing this pristine resource, which is the heart of the southern Yellowstone ecosystem."

In a March 7 letter to the public, Hamilton wrote that the land is highly valued for its undeveloped nature and recreational opportunities. Moreover, she said her interactions with the public and public comments received during an analysis of the proposed leasing confirmed her view that those values are strongly held by local, regional and national interests.

Therefore, she wrote: "It is my determination that leasing these areas for oil and gas exploration and development could compromise the area's character and highly valued recreation opportunities." Leasing would likely result in timber cutting and the construction of roads and industrial sites.

In December 2000, Hamilton identified as a preferred alternative closing the lands to oil and gas drilling by amending the forest plan. Friday's decision stopped short of that.

Instead of amending the forest plan, Hamilton sent the Bureau of Land Management a letter telling minerals officials not to lease the areas.

Since Hamilton's decision maintains the status quo and does not propose an action, such as amending the forest plan, the Forest Service will not issue a "record of decision," said forest spokesman Jay Anderson. Since no record of decision will be issued, the decision cannot be appealed, he said. Opponents would have to file a challenge in court.

The Forest Service will revise the forest plan in the next few years and the status of the lands likely will be revisited in that planning process. When announcing the no-drilling decision, forest officials said Friday that the lands could be considered for leasing in the future if new information becomes available or conditions change.

Hamilton's decision not to allow exploration and development comes despite the Bush administration's push to increase domestic oil and gas production. But Hamilton said abandoning efforts to open the 376,000 acres would free forest personnel to work on a backlog of requests to drill in areas where leasing already is allowed. The Bridger-Teton has 613,500 acres, or about 18 percent of the forest, open to leasing and of interest to industry, according to Hamilton.

Forest officials "will explore options with regional and national specialists on ways to expedite existing lease requests for the development of energy resources on forest lands," Hamilton said.

Conservationists are leery of Hamilton's proposal to speed up drilling elsewhere on the forest. Much has changed since the forest plan identified areas as open to drilling, Groene said. In particular, intense oil and gas development on adjacent BLM lands may be impacting forest resources, such as air quality and wildlife, he said.

Taylor said the Forest Service should give the rest of the forest the same thorough consideration the agency gave the 376,000 acres. "We don't think any leases should be expedited," she said.

While Wyoming may be of "global significance" for oil and gas, Taylor said, "our surface values of natural resources in the form of water, wildlife, etc. are also of global significance."

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