IN A FUN EFFORT TO HELP LOCAL WILDLIFE HABITAT, the Wyoming Outdoor Council teamed up with the Wyoming Wilderness Association and the Bureau of Land Management to host a volunteer stewardship day to improve over a mile and a half of fencing in the Big Sandy foothills outside Boulder, Wyoming. This fence modification project, led by BLM sage-grouse specialist Nate Fronk, offers critical changes to traditional fencing so that pronghorn, mule deer, and Greater sage-grouse can safely pass unharmed. Alongside staff from WOC, WWA, and BLM, six Wyomingites volunteered their Saturday to make this landscape a better place.
Traditional fencing across Wyoming is composed of four barb-wire rows, with the top line at 50 inches and the bottom at 12 inches. Studies show that sage-grouse fly at 50 inches on average, and often collide with the top fence wire, which is a significant contributor to sage-grouse fatalities in the area. Mule deer also have a difficult time jumping over fencing at that height, and pronghorn struggle to duck underneath the bottom line.
Luckily, a few simple alterations can turn this cumbersome barrier into an easy passage. The bottom barb-wire line is replaced with a smooth wire and raised to 18 inches, allowing pronghorn to duck underneath without injury. The top wire is lowered to 40 inches, which dramatically reduces sage grouse fatalities and makes it easier for mule deer to jump over it. While these minor modifications have a huge benefit to local wildlife, it does not compromise any functionality in keeping cattle and livestock where they’re supposed to be.
This is a great example of simple solutions that have a huge impact, making our ecosystems healthier while still serving the needs of our livestock and grazing industries. Thanks to the good work of volunteers, this stretch of fence will no longer endanger our beloved wildlife.
The Wyoming Outdoor Council is always looking for volunteers to help improve our public lands and wildlife habitat. If you’re interested in helping out on a stewardship day or other project, pleasesign up to receive updates to learn about how you can help maintain Wyoming’s environment and quality of life for future generations.
THE YEAR 1988 FEELS LIKE A LIFETIME AGO. At the time, the Berlin Wall was still standing, over a million acres in the Greater Yellowstone burned to the ground, and the legal drinking age in Wyoming was 19. It was also the last time the Bureau of Land Management updated the rules that govern its oil and gas leasing program. That’s 35 years without major revisions — which has resulted in an outdated program that threatens the agency’s ability to manage public lands in a way that protects all the uses, including conservation and wildlife values. Thankfully, in July 2023, the BLM took the first steps to change that, publishing a new draft rule to bring its oil and gas leasing program into the 21st century. The rule includes timely improvements that will benefit our public lands and the people of Wyoming in several ways.
The first change is an issue that is close to my heart as the Outdoor Council’s wildlife and public lands advocate. The draft rule takes strides to steer leasing away from lands with little to no potential for oil and gas so that places with important habitat and recreational values can be better managed for those resources. Here in Wyoming, we are blessed with some of the greatest wildlife habitat, blue ribbon fisheries, and untrammeled open spaces in the lower 48. Many of us who live here rely on this surrounding bounty and wouldn’t have it any other way. Unfortunately, when parcels of public lands are proposed for leasing without taking their actual energy potential into account, it allows land speculators to tie up these lands for years, making it difficult for the BLM to manage for other uses, including habitat conservation and recreation.
For example, areas surrounding Seedskadee National Wildlife Refuge and much of the Red Desert are beset with leases on lands with little to no potential for oil and gas development. Both places have phenomenal value for wildlife and recreationists alike, supporting large herds of ungulates, dense populations of Greater sage-grouse, and opportunities for solitude undreamed of in most of the country. By using new criteria that favor leasing land close to existing development and deprioritizing land with important natural and cultural resources, the new rule better equips the BLM to protect the qualities that make Seedskadee, the Red Desert, and other public lands exceptional.
By using new criteria that favor leasing land close to existing development and deprioritizing land with important natural and cultural resources, the new rule better equips the BLM to protect the qualities that make Seedskadee, the Red Desert, and other public lands exceptional.
In parts of Wyoming where oil and gas leasing and drilling does occur, the new rule would better protect taxpayers and ensure companies pay to clean up after themselves when operations cease. Importantly, the new rule raises federal bonding rates for the first time in decades. At current rates, it’s cheaper for companies to walk away and forfeit the money they put down on a bond rather than plug and reclaim wells. Updated bond rates in the new rule would help quash the orphaned well crisis, protecting the public and promoting landscape health. Moreover, the new rates set forth match those Wyoming has had in place for years to drill on state-owned lands, demonstrating that oil and gas companies can afford to pony up adequate funds for clean-up as part of the cost of doing business.
The new rule would also help Wyoming taxpayers receive a fair return on development taking place on our public lands by modernizing royalty rates, rental rates, and filing fees to reflect the economic realities of today. A 2019 analysis conducted by Taxpayers for Common Sense found that taxpayers lost an estimated $120 million in rental revenue between FY2010 and FY2019 from oil and gas leasing on federal lands in Wyoming, due to previously outdated rental rates. If companies are going to reap the rewards of drilling for oil and gas on public lands, they should be compensating the public properly. The new rule, with provisions to increase royalty rates from 12.5% to 16.67%, will ensure just that.
We all know that oil and gas development plays an important role in Wyoming’s economy and is one of the many uses the BLM manages for on our public lands. Given that, it is gratifying to see the agency moving forward with common-sense reforms that better serve the public and the lands it manages. We have a lot to protect in Wyoming — this draft rule helps us take another step in the right direction.
When it comes to the BLM’s oil and gas program, it’s high time we leave the 1980s behind.
The Bureau of Land Management rang in the new year with a bang and has cued up a public comment doubleheader for two upcoming oil and gas lease sales. I hope you’ll take advantage of this opportunity to share your views on both sales with the BLM in one fell swoop!
First up, the newly proposed September lease sale would open more than 95,000 acres of public land to oil and gas development, 20 percent of which overlaps priority sage-grouse habitat. With sagebrush habitat in freefall, and ongoing sage-grouse population declines, we should be shoring up the best remaining sage-grouse habitat, not leasing it out for industrial development. Also of concern is a parcel directly adjacent to, and possibly overlapping, two Wilderness Study Areas (Alkali Basin/East Sand Dune and Red Lake) and 19 parcels in crucial winter range for mule deer, pronghorn, and elk.
I do have some good news to share: Thanks in part to public comments from people like you, the BLM issued an Environmental Assessment that could remove 80,000 acres of public land from the June lease sale, much of which was also in priority sage-grouse habitat. Now is the time to let the BLM know that we are in favor of these deferrals. That said, dozens of parcels are still being offered in priority sage-grouse habitat along with three parcels in Wyoming’s officially designated Baggs mule deer migration corridor. I encourage you to speak up on behalf of these conservation values on our public lands.
Your comments can be brief and highlight your own personal connection to the wildlife and landscapes in question. You may also want to highlight that:
The BLM has made previous commitments to avoid new surface disturbance in high priority habitat, yet both proposed sales include parcels that lie within this core sage-grouse habitat.
Across the West, we are losing 1.3 million acres of sagebrush habitat annually and the primary threat to sagebrush in Wyoming is development. Protecting core, healthy tracts of sagebrush habitat from disturbance is crucial to the ecosystem and benefits many other species of wildlife that depend on sagebrush.
More than 8 million acres of public lands in Wyoming are already leased to oil and gas companies, with 4.2 million acres sitting idle and undeveloped. Companies have ample opportunity for drilling without the BLM leasing additional parcels.
Comments on the September sale are due Jan. 19, and comments for the June sale are due Jan. 23.
Thank you for your commitment to the lands and wildlife that sustain us all!
On Friday, Nov. 11, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency took an important step toward protecting public health and reducing greenhouse gas emissions that contribute to climate change by strengthening proposed rules that will reduce wasteful methane emissions from the oil and gas industry.
If enacted, these common-sense rules would be the first action by the EPA to regulate methane emissions from the thousands of existing oil and gas wells in Wyoming, not just future development. The rules are expected to promote new cost-effective technologies to prevent waste, and make natural gas more competitive as consumers demand cleaner sources of energy.
The announcement of new measures to cut methane and other harmful pollutants from oil and gas operations is welcome news, and builds off of Wyoming’s own successes in reducing harmful emissions and will limit wasted methane from leak-prone equipment.
The updated proposal would require routine and cost-effective monitoring of well sites, encourage the development and use of new leak detection technologies, and set higher standards for flaring — a practice by which methane is burned as a waste product rather than captured and sold.
The Wyoming Outdoor Council sees these rules as essential to spurring future innovation around leak detection and repair and to creating a level playing field for methane regulation across the oil and gas industry. We’re encouraged by the efforts to address routine flaring, and hope that the final rule fully eliminates this wasteful practice.
Methane emissions from human activities are responsible for about 30 percent of global warming since the industrial revolution.
The case for cutting methane emissions
Methane regulation is supported widely by leading industry and conservation groups. Many oil and gas operators, including major Wyoming producers like Jonah Energy and Purewest Energy, are already working to reduce sources of wasted methane as consumers demand cleaner sources of energy.
The Inflation Reduction Act, which passed into law in August 2022, set aside roughly $1.5 billion to help operators to comply with new methane emissions rules.
Capturing methane is very cost effective. In many cases wasted natural gas can be captured and sold, paying for most, if not all, of the additional work needed to capture it. Recent data from the International Energy Agency suggest that up to 45 percent of wasted methane emissions can be prevented at no net cost.
Reducing methane leaks saves taxpayer dollars and stewards valuable resources for the future. In 2018, the Wyoming Outdoor Council and its partners estimated that between $51 million and $96 million of methane was vented and flared annually in Wyoming. This translated to $9-16 million lost in annual royalty payments to the state.
Reducing methane emissions from oil and gas production is widely regarded by scientists and policy makers as a critical first step to mitigate the worst impacts of climate change in the future. Methane is a powerful greenhouse gas responsible for about 30 percent of global warming since the industrial revolution. However, methane also leaves the atmosphere quickly compared to other greenhouse gases like carbon dioxide. Reducing wasted methane emissions now is one of the best opportunities to buy time to implement other climate solutions.
Reducing methane emissions has significant air quality and human health benefits. The same leak detection and repair practices used to reduce methane will also reduce harmful air pollutants such as volatile organic compounds (VOCs) that cause respiratory damage and contribute to poor air quality.
The Bureau of Land Management has announced plans to lease more than 250,000 acres of public lands in Wyoming for oil and gas development in the beginning of 2023. Sage-grouse habitat is impacted on nearly every acre of the proposed lease sale.
Greater sage-grouse have declined across their range by 80% since 1965, and habitat loss is a significant driver in those declines. We are losing sagebrush habitat at a rate of 1.3 million acres a year throughout the West, but Wyoming is a bright spot, retaining more intact sagebrush habitat than any other state in the union. Wyoming has a valuable role to play in preserving sage-grouse populations and the sagebrush ecosystem by shoring up our remaining stretches of healthy habitat.
We at the Wyoming Outdoor Council believe the BLM should, at minimum, remove all parcels encompassing “priority” or “core” sage-grouse habitat from this sale — although offering any parcels within “general” sage-grouse habitat is also ill-advised. The development that we allow in Wyoming has far-reaching implications for the persistence of sage-grouse nationally, and staving off an Endangered Species Act listing depends on providing these birds the space they need on the landscape. Given the downward trajectory of sage-grouse numbers, we should not be offering up sage-grouse habitat for industrial development.
The BLM is accepting public scoping comments until Nov. 7 to identify issues that should be addressed in the agency’s environmental review. If you have a moment, send a brief, personal message to the BLM asking that sage-grouse core areas be removed from the sale. Sharing your concerns with the sale, and your personal connection to the wildlife and landscapes that will be affected, can help influence the agency to take conservation values into account.
In your comments, you may want to highlight that:
The vast majority of the proposed lease sale falls in sage-grouse habitat (205 out of 209 parcels). The BLM has made previous commitments to avoid new surface disturbance in high priority habitat, yet 70 of the parcels lie within this core sage-grouse habitat.
Across the West, we are losing 1.3 million acres of sagebrush habitat annually and the primary threat to sagebrush in Wyoming is development. Protecting core, healthy tracts of sagebrush habitat from disturbance is crucial to the ecosystem and benefits numerous other species of wildlife that depend on sagebrush.
More than 8 million acres of public lands in Wyoming are already leased to oil and gas companies, with 4.2 million acres sitting idle and undeveloped. Companies have ample opportunity for drilling without the BLM leasing additional parcels.
Thank you for taking the time to be a champion for our wild species and wild places. If you have questions, please reach out to Meghan Riley, the Outdoor Council’s public lands and wildlife advocate.
The eighth annual Run the Red trail race took off from South Pass City Saturday, Sept. 24, 2022 celebrating Wyoming Public Lands day with a testament to our incredible public lands. Over 260 runners — the most in the history of the event — stepped up to the challenge, venturing into the vast and beautiful Red Desert to tackle either the half marathon, 50K or grueling 100K distances.
Together with co-sponsors Wyoming Wilderness Association and National Outdoor Leadership School, the Wyoming Outdoor Council has anchored conservation into the character of this nationally recognized trail race: all participants supported Citizens for the Red Desert with a small donation or participated in a volunteer stewardship project at South Pass. Special thanks to WOC engagement coordinator Kyle Elmquist, our partners, and everyone who volunteered to make the day memorable!
Photos courtesy of our race directors at Everlong Endurance.
Kara Choquette is director of communications and government relations for wind energy developer Power Company of Wyoming, as well as the TransWest Express transmission line project. Earlier this year, she joined the board of the Wyoming Energy Authority. She shared her thoughts about the Energy Authority and the role of renewable energy in Wyoming’s future in a quick Q&A with the Outdoor Council.
Share a little about your background, and your experience in the energy industry. What motivates you to work in the energy sector in Wyoming, and how did that lead you to serve on the board of the WEA?
I’ve been working directly in the renewable energy space since 2009. That’s when I joined a company that is developing the nation’s largest single wind power project, in Carbon County, Wyoming, and is also developing a major new interregional electricity transmission line for Wyoming. It was a natural career transition for me and a compelling opportunity after spending over a decade working in the technology and water industries – which each include important energy-related aspects. I liked the fact that wind turbines create electricity without requiring any water. Having grown up on a family farm/ranch, I wanted to help bring more kinds of good-paying, stable, family-supporting jobs to a rural area. And I liked that wind energy is compatible with agricultural operations and multiple environmental objectives.
I’ve been an active participant in some manner with the Wyoming Energy Authority and with one of its predecessors, the Wyoming Infrastructure Authority, since 2009. Recently, I’ve been part of two multi-stakeholder state groups – the governor’s Platte Valley Mule Deer Local Area Working Group, and the University of Wyoming-led Renewable Energy Siting Collaborative. I was honored to join the WEA board because the WEA is at the forefront of “all things energy,” in the nation’s top Energy State, during a fascinating period of energy opportunity and evolution.
How do you see renewable energy fitting into the future of Wyoming’s economy and way of life?
To me, renewable energy is entirely consistent with Wyoming’s pioneering and pathfinding DNA. Wyoming’s history is filled with so many stories about developing new trails, exploring diverse opportunities, and responding creatively and decisively to changing markets and conditions. Renewable energy also can help maintain Wyoming’s longstanding leadership as an energy producer and exporter. The completion of the Union Pacific Railroad in 1869 opened up new access to new markets for otherwise-stranded resources in Wyoming, such as coal produced from Wyoming’s original coal-mining county (Carbon County). Similarly, new high-voltage interregional transmission lines will open up access to new markets for otherwise-stranded clean electricity resources in Wyoming. The state does not have in-state demand for all of the abundant mineral and non-mineral resources it can provide. When new non-mineral power plants can compete and can secure customers out-of-state, that will create more new energy jobs and new sources of energy revenues in-state.
What are your hopes for your time with the Wyoming Energy Authority? What would you like to see WEA achieve?
The Wyoming Energy Authority is a relatively new entity, created by the state in 2019 (via Senate File 37). The WEA’s primary purpose is straightforward: “diversify and expand the Wyoming economy through improvements in the state’s electric and energy transmission infrastructure and facilitate Wyoming’s production, development and transmission of energy and associated natural resources.” I would like to be part of the WEA continuing to grow and achieve its purpose, especially in areas related to the clean energy technologies that are increasingly in demand today and in the near future. I hope to add value by bringing diverse expertise specifically in the renewable energy sector, and an enthusiasm for other important energy aspects like energy efficiency. The WEA is fortunate to have an outstanding executive director, smart and dedicated staff, and top mineral and non-mineral energy experts who have been on the board since its inception; I’m glad to be part of this team.
We all know that Wyoming is a special place. We are fortunate to live in a state where we can recreate on mountaintops, marvel at open vistas, watch wildlife roam, and take a moment to connect with the land and one another. Over half of Wyoming is public land, and all of it is the ancestral homeland of Indigenous people. It deserves to be celebrated.
This Saturday, Sept. 24, offers the perfect opportunity to do just that as the state marks the fourth annual Wyoming Public Lands Day — which was established by the state legislature in 2019 thanks to the work of the Keep it Public, Wyoming coalition.
Wyoming Outdoor Council staff and our partners at NOLS and Wyoming Wilderness Association will be out in the Red Desert, hosting the eighth annual Run the Red trail races. If you’re joining us, I look forward to seeing you! If not, I encourage you to get outside with friends or family to celebrate everything Wyoming offers us.
Whether you are camping in the Bighorns, riding your bike through Vedauwoo, or hunting pronghorn in the Great Divide Basin, the Outdoor Council wishes you a very happy Wyoming Public Lands Day. It is also important to acknowledge that all public land was once Tribal land. Remember to visit with respect as many of these places are sacred to the distinct Tribal nations that have both historical and contemporary connections to Wyoming’s public lands.
Be safe and responsible. Have fun. Give thanks.
P.S. Vedauwoo’s name comes from Biito’owu’, an Arapaho word for Earth.
This spring, John Mionczynski a local ethnobotanist, biologist, and historian, accompanied Citizens for the Red Desert into the landscape to help educate and inform tour participants about the natural wonders and uses of the desert ecosystem. Above, you can see him pointing out the geological anomalies of the Great Divide Basin as tour participants take in the dramatic expanse of badlands throughout the Honeycomb Buttes Wilderness Study Area. Off in the distance, stand the Oregon Buttes, another WSA. Part of Mionczynski’s knowledge includes the abundance of edible and medicinal foods that grow throughout the Red Desert. Pictured above, he digs up biscuit root for tour participants and explains how this root vegetable was a staple for an Indigenous diet, often ground into flour and made into bread. Later on the tour, near a bubbling spring, Mionczynski explained how water is a precious resource. This spring, and others like it, are scattered across the desert and attract wildlife from miles around and support a thriving habitat.
In late May, CfRD joined Southwest Wyoming Off-Road Trails on a tour to explore the motorized recreation potential of the area. This is one of many groups who add value to the desert and show that working together can simultaneously support the landscape, stimulate local economies, and empower our communities. Above, you can see the way these ORV enthusiasts spent their day in the desert, taking in the scenes near Oregon Buttes and the White Mountains.
On June 28, members of Citizens for the Red Desert spent another day in the desert, visiting three sacred petroglyph sites and the Boars Tusk. Yufna Soldier Wolf, the Tribal advocacy coordinator for the Indigenous Land Alliance of Wyoming, is pictured above, discussing ways in which we can better manage and protect these sites, especially within the context of the forthcoming Bureau of Land Management’s Rock Springs Resource Management Plan.
How do we make sure the coming boom in renewable energy isn’t a bust for our wildlife and public lands?
This story, like much of the good work that happens in Lander, began as a meeting over coffee at the Lander Bake Shop. Staff from several conservation groups, including the Wyoming Outdoor Council, had gathered to look at GPS tracking collar data from pronghorn around Sweetwater Solar, Wyoming’s first large-scale solar project on public land.
The map of the pronghorn’s movement was infuriating — the 700-acre solar development had been placed right in the middle of crucial winter habitat. Fences surrounding the project had funneled many of the animals onto Highway 372 north of the city of Green River, creating hazards for both wildlife and drivers. The impacts of the Sweetwater Solar project on pronghorn were completely predictable and avoidable. But aside from a brief Environmental Assessment required by the Bureau of Land Management, there was little in the existing permitting process to direct the developers to a better location where wildlife conflicts could have been avoided.
What became clear in that meeting and in subsequent discussions was that the Sweetwater Solar project was likely a harbinger of what’s to come in the next decade as the cost of developing solar and wind energy continues to fall dramatically.
The expected boom in renewable energy puts advocates for conservation in Wyoming in a challenging spot. We understand the dire importance of transitioning to cleaner energy sources, and at the same time recognize the significant development footprint that utility-scale renewables can have on Wyoming’s wildlife and open spaces. The question and dilemma on many of our minds is this: How does Wyoming decarbonize its electricity production while not sacrificing the crucial wildlife habitat and open space that make it so unique?
As with many of the challenges our state faces, there is no silver bullet to solve this problem, but common sense and science both tell us that focusing our efforts on responsible siting and permitting processes for renewables is the logical place to start. That’s exactly what WOC tried to do with its effort to jumpstart the Wyoming Renewable Energy Siting Collaborative.
As with many of the challenges our state faces, there is no silver bullet to solve this problem, but common sense and science both tell us that focusing our efforts on responsible siting and permitting processes for renewables is the logical place to start.
After the 2020 legislative session, WOC started reaching out to stakeholders around the state to understand the perception of renewable energy and ways we might be able to improve our siting and permitting policies. We worked closely with faculty at the University of Wyoming to convene a group of policy thinkers representing conservation, industry, local government, landowners, and independent consultants to explore opportunities for the state to improve how renewable energy is sited.
During 2021 this group met nine times over Zoom to discuss issues related to renewable energy in Wyoming, including tax policy, federal and state revenue sharing, transmission development, supply chain manufacturing, and other topics. The group also learned from and consulted with experts from the Wyoming Industrial Siting Division, the Wyoming Game and Fish Department, and the Wyoming Wildlife and Natural Resource Trust. The group’s final recommendations were published in November 2021 and can be found on UW’s Ruckelshaus Institute website.
These recommendations are a start. They form an important foundation for future policy and advocacy work, especially as our country moves to decarbonize electricity production and accelerate the growth of renewables. They also show that industry and conservation can work together to agree on important concepts moving forward.
Some of the most important points of agreement in these recommendations address the need for more proactive planning for renewable development on public lands, the need for early and frequent consultation with the Wyoming Game and Fish Department to avoid wildlife conflicts, and the need to evaluate previously disturbed locations as places to site renewable energy. There is also strong agreement on the importance of public transparency and engagement as projects move forward so impacted citizens and communities have opportunities for meaningful input on project proposals.
We know that more wind and solar energy is on the horizon, and the development of these resources will present historic challenges and opportunities for Wyoming. But as with all development, we must insist that this growth be done on our terms — in a responsible and measured way — that does not degrade and diminish the very things clean energy is supposed to protect. Holding that line will require leadership at the state level. It will also take collaborative efforts like the one that played out last year at the University of Wyoming — with the full spectrum of experts and advocates coming together with a shared goal of making sure future development is sited appropriately. We’ve already seen the impacts on wildlife when things go wrong. But done right, renewable energy development could be an asset, not a liability, to Wyoming’s environment and quality of life.
