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public lands

Field Notes


Tell the BLM to keep Wyoming wildlife habitat off the auction block

Posted on by John Rader

Tell the BLM to keep Wyoming wildlife habitat off the auction block

At the start of 2022, the federal government plans to lease more than 179,000 acres of public lands in Wyoming for oil and gas development.

While the Wyoming Outdoor Council appreciates that the Bureau of Land Management removed many parcels within “priority” or “core” sage-grouse habitat from this sale, most of the remaining parcels are still well within the imperiled bird’s range. Sage-grouse are in steep decline across the West, and the federal government is currently updating its management plans in an effort to prevent an Endangered Species Act listing. Until we have an updated strategy, based on the best available science, we should not be offering up sage-grouse habitat for industrial development.

The BLM is accepting public comment until Dec. 1. If you have a moment, please to send a brief, personal message to the BLM asking that sensitive wildlife habitat be removed from the sale.

SUBMIT A PUBLIC COMMENT

As you may know, lease sales were paused early this year so the Department of the Interior could conduct a review of the program because of fiscal waste and problems with accountability and transparency that the Government Accountability Office has flagged for decades. That review has still not been completed, but for the time being a federal judge has ordered leasing to resume.

The upcoming sale illustrates some of the faults with the current leasing system. It includes parcels adjacent to wilderness study areas, in some of our best wildlife habitat, and in areas that are highly prized for backcountry recreation and hunting — even though they’ve been shown to have low potential for ever producing oil and gas. The BLM did not meet its obligation to consult meaningfully with Tribes that have ancestral ties to the region. And the environmental review did not consider localized impacts of climate change, such as the effects on wildlife habitat, water resources, or wildfires.

Five million acres of public lands in Wyoming are leased for oil and gas but not yet developed. Clearly the industry has what it needs to continue business-as-usual drilling and production for many years to come, so let’s make sure our irreplaceable wildlife have the space they need to thrive.

Field Notes


Scenes from Run the Red and Wyoming Public Lands Day 2021

Posted on by Alan Rogers

SCENES FROM RUN THE RED AND WYOMING PUBLIC LANDS DAY 2021

On Wyoming Public Lands Day, we gathered in South Pass City with hundreds of you to cheer on the Run the Red trail race runners and celebrate all our public lands have to offer us. After the 2020 event and many other in-person gatherings were cancelled due to COVID-19, being together in the Northern Red Desert with our community of members, partners, and friends was that much more special. Thank you to all the runners, volunteers, musicians, dancers, and everyone who joined us in the desert!

You can read more about the day in this story from the Casper Star-Tribune.

Field Notes


The public lands lease system is broken. Let’s fix it.

Posted on by John Rader

THE PUBLIC LANDS LEASE SYSTEM IS BROKEN. LET’S FIX IT.

The federal oil and gas leasing program is deeply flawed. Outdated laws and policies have led to a wave of speculative leasing on public lands, threatening wildlife habitat, outdoor recreation, and sacred cultural sites important to Indigenous peoples. Millions of acres across the West and in Wyoming are tied up in leases, but over half are sitting idle, without producing a drop of oil and gas. Thousands of leases have sold for rock bottom prices, short changing taxpayers. Sovereign Native American tribes have been routinely ignored, and opportunities for the public to weigh in on leasing have been inconsistent. 

Our May 2020 lease report detailed many of these concerns. Now, with the program under federal review, we consider several solutions in our 2021 report: Public Lands Lease Reform.

It’s time to update our antiquated leasing program, for the benefit of Wyoming and the American public. Check out this new report to find out how modernizing our century old oil and gas leasing program can generate more revenue for taxpayers, protect other important public resources, and ensure transparency and accountability in the leasing process.

See the full report below, or click to open it in a new window

Field Notes


Outdoor Council’s latest legal intern fills key role for conservation

Posted on by Claire Cella

The work the Wyoming Outdoor Council does as a conservation nonprofit takes the effort of a group of people with a range of skills, backgrounds, and expertise. Across the state, we have become known for our immersion at the Wyoming State Legislature each year, where our conservation advocates work with lawmakers to help craft and pass some of our state’s most important conservation policy. We’re also known for citizen engagement, which involves the entire WOC team in planning events (in-person and online) that bring our work to you, our supporters, members, and the public.

But beyond these more public-facing endeavors, a lot of our work goes on behind the scenes, quietly and diligently. It is within this work that the Outdoor Council staff attorneys play an invaluable role. And it’s seen in no better place than the small legacy of our legal internship program, which we’ve run informally for about 20 years and which has recruited some of our current staff including Executive Director Lisa McGee and Conservation Advocate John Rader. 

Our current intern is Alex Hamilton, a 28-year-old who is finishing up his law degree — as well as a master’s in Environmental Studies — at the University of Colorado-Boulder. His work so far with the Outdoor Council is proof of the critical role attorneys play in our work and more broadly in environmental conservation. It’s crucial to the watchdogging part of our mission — staff attorneys often are responsible for reviewing pages upon stacks of important legal documents to keep federal and state agencies and lawmakers accountable to their own policies, contracts, management plans, and legislation.

Alex’s particular interest has been in federal land use planning and management, which involves the land under the control of the Bureau of Land Management, the National Forest Service, and the National Park Service. Land use planning and management is the process of regulating the use of land by these agencies to allow for a variety of uses while preserving the land’s natural resources.

“I’m really excited to be working at the Outdoor Council on these particular issues,” he said, “because I’ve been working on the interface of federal and state law while at law school, and this is where WOC’s focus has been, too. With this last year being especially focused on school, it’s exciting to have tangible and meaningful work to do.”

For Alex’s internship, he’s already reviewed how the state of Wyoming has chosen to spend money from the Federal Natural Resource Policy Account since 2015. These funds can be used to take action in response to federal land, water, air, mineral and other natural resource policies, or to participate in environmental review processes.

Alex found that most of the expenditures have gone either to local governments to facilitate their involvement in federal land use planning or to the Attorney General’s office to fund litigation. But what he also found, and why the Outdoor Council was pursuing this research, was that despite the Eastern Shoshone and Northern Arapaho Tribes paying millions of dollars in taxes to help fund FNRPA, the tribes are not eligible to receive any of these funds. As a result, the tribes must fully fund their own participation in resource planning, while Wyoming counties receive tens of thousands of dollars in support from the state.

After finishing this review, Alex wrote a memo to Rep. Andi Clifford, requesting that the state legislature make the tribes eligible to seek these funds. The hope is to expand access to the account so that the tribes have the same support for engagement in federal land use planning processes that local governments do and so that it honors their vested interests in federal land use. Up until this point, the state has not allowed this.

Alex also has two other projects, both related to water quality issues. He’s reviewing the requirements that give the Wyoming Department of Environmental Quality primacy over the Clean Air Act and Clean Water Act. Primacy means that these state-level agencies like the DEQ have the ability to administer these acts, as opposed to the Environmental Protection Agency. If, however, the state agency isn’t meeting the criteria, the EPA can revoke primacy and begin to regulate these acts. Through his research, Alex is looking to ensure that the DEQ can meet — and is meeting —the requirements by adequately protecting Wyoming’s air and water in compliance with federal law. 

He’s also helping to look into next steps regarding the DEQ’s decision to require surface water quality samplers (such as conservation groups, students, or citizen scientists) to have advanced degrees and other qualifications to collect data for determining surface water quality standards. His research is helping us understand the options the Outdoor Council could pursue with the Environmental Quality Council as well as any potential violations of the Clean Water Act this decision causes.

While Alex admits that delving deep into dense legal cases, regulations, statutes, and other documents isn’t always easy, he knows how important the task is to being a lawyer. It’s like solving a puzzle, he said, and part of that involves getting to understand how certain agencies communicate both internally as well as to the public through these documents.

The tangibility of working as an environmental lawyer is what hooked Alex on the career path initially, too.

“That’s a big part of the reason I’m in this field,” he said.

This path seemed to have been worn in from an early age. Alex grew up on the outskirts of the shores of Lake Tahoe, in Truckee, CA, and proclaims to have always loved the snow (which is a lucky penchant to have when living in the West). He was a cross-country ski racer in high school and went to college in Maine to pursue the sport. It was through ski racing that he was first exposed to the Rocky Mountain West, which he described as “eye-opening.” Although not dissimilar to northern California, the scenery and sense he got looking out many a ski team van window was enough to have an impact. When he graduated with an undergraduate degree in Environmental Studies, he was already sure about two things: that he wanted to get back West and he wanted to pursue law.

“I knew that I wanted to work in environmental and conservation from early on in college. I cared a lot about the Mountain West and wanted to work to protect these places that I care about.”

When he graduates in May of this year, he hopes to seek a position with the federal government, perhaps with the National Forest Service as a natural resources planner. He thinks it’s vital that the government uphold its responsibility to the people and to the land, and he wants to be a career employee who dedicates his life to that.

“This experience with the Outdoor Council has really prepared me to have a holistic perspective on the land use planning process as I pursue a position within the federal government,” he said. “I’ve seen first hand how it plays out from an interest group and an advocacy standpoint, and so now I’m able to bring this breadth of understanding to my future career and hopefully facilitate full and fair participation when it comes to land use.”

“I knew that I wanted to work in environmental and conservation from early on in college. I cared a lot about the Mountain West and wanted to work to protect these places that I care about.”

Field Notes


Field Notes: February updates from the Wyoming Outdoor Council

Posted on by Alan Rogers

NITRATE RULE SETBACK

In a disappointing move, the Teton District Board of Health declined to adopt a proposed rule that would alert residents when increasing levels of harmful nitrates are detected in drinking water. The rule, drafted by the Wyoming Outdoor Council and Protect Our Water Jackson Hole, would have required the county health department to notify the public when elevated levels of nitrates are detected in any of the county’s 114 public water systems and investigate the source of the pollution.

While this is an unfortunate delay, the residents of Teton County have made it clear that clean, safe drinking water should be a priority in their community. Together with our partners, the Outdoor Council will continue working with county officials to enact this important safeguard. 

OIL AND GAS LEASING

In late January, the Biden administration announced an executive order pausing new oil and gas leasing on public lands so the Department of the Interior can conduct a “rigorous review of all existing leasing and permitting practices related to fossil fuel development on public lands and waters.” 

The oil and gas industry is an important part of Wyoming’s economy and, when done properly, development has a place on our public lands. However, the federal leasing program is decades out of date. We’ll continue to push for common-sense leasing reforms that will place the many other uses and values of our public lands (like wildlife habitat, historic cultural sites, and outdoor recreation) on equal footing with development, while also ensuring a fair return for taxpayers. Importantly, we want to see an end to noncompetitive “over-the-counter” leases as well as leasing of lands with low potential for producing oil and gas.

Field Notes


A dream for the Red Desert

Posted on by Alan Rogers

It’s the heart of winter in Wyoming and, for many of us, it’s a favorite time of year. The days are short and the nights are cold, but the snow brings a quiet, peaceful stillness and lends a special beauty to everyday life. For some, that means skiing, snowmobiling or ice fishing. For others, hunkering down with a hot drink and good book or movie is the best way to enjoy the season. 

The midwinter weeks are also a time to take stock of the past year and plan for the one ahead. These days, a lot of us at the Wyoming Outdoor Council have been daydreaming about the Red Desert. 

The Red Desert is commonly described as the largest unfenced area in the Lower 48. While its size and remote nature are impressive in themselves, this doesn’t paint the full picture. The desert is truly unique, with sweeping views, thriving wildlife, and mind-bending geological features. The ruts of the Oregon, California, and Mormon trails crisscross land that has been used by Indigenous peoples since time immemorial. The few nondescript county roads meander to the horizon.

Even in Wyoming, it can be hard to believe a place this rugged still exists. But there is life here. Wildlife abounds, including elk, mule deer, and Greater sage-grouse. Ranchers run cattle, and many hunters, hikers, mountain bikers, and off-road enthusiasts consider the desert their best-kept secret. From the sand dunes, buttes, and badlands to the aspen oases and expanses of sagebrush, the Red Desert is as diverse as the people who care for it. 

For generations the Red Desert has sustained a way of life that is undeniably Western and provided opportunities for work, play, and quiet contemplation to anyone who seeks it. There is a balance that works, and we as Wyomingites have the power to uphold it. That’s why the Outdoor Council has spent years working to keep the desert the way it is — a working landscape rich with wildlife, history, and open space. 

In 2020, we joined together with like-minded people from all walks of life in Citizens for the Red Desert, a coalition of Wyoming citizens and organizations who love the desert. We also hired a new staff member, Shaleas Harrison, to coordinate the effort. The people in this group all have different reasons for taking part, but they recognize that there is a common ground when seeking to preserve all the diverse values and uses of the desert. 

While Citizens for the Red Desert is relatively new, the passion for the Red Desert is anything but. Wyoming residents first proposed that a portion of the desert be permanently protected as a winter game preserve in 1898, and in the century that followed, a host of other conservation efforts were considered. 

These public lands have seen relatively little new development in recent years. A patchwork of agency-level protections helps sustain the Red Desert elk herd, the White Mountain Petroglyphs, the sand dunes, and other values. But it is a tenuous balance that could easily unravel. Increasingly, dramatic shifts in federal land management priorities add an additional layer of uncertainty about the future. 

As Wyomingites, the Red Desert helps tell our story. Now, we want to tell the story of the desert. 

In the coming year the Outdoor Council will be working with citizen and tribal partners to chart the course to permanent protection of this special place — based on the existing framework that respects the full range of opportunities this land provides. For more than 130 years, Wyomingites have shown their support. An enduring, Wyoming-grown solution can make that dream a reality and keep the special values of the Red Desert intact for generations to come. 

Field Notes


Playing the long game for conservation policies that endure

Posted on by Lisa McGee

A change in federal administrations — and the policies that follow — is cause for either excitement or anxiety depending on how you voted. And for good reason: Elections have consequences. National policies affect our health, our economy, and our environment. And in Wyoming, where nearly half of the land is managed by the federal government, national policies have a disproportionate impact. 

Members of the Wyoming Outdoor Council fall all along the political spectrum. We agree to disagree on many issues, but find common ground when it comes to conservation. Conservation is not — and should not be — a partisan issue. 

From the standpoint of conservation and environmental justice, the legacy of the outgoing administration is dire. From climate change denial and the loosening of air and water quality safeguards to oil and gas leasing in areas important to Indigenous people and in crucial wildlife habitats, there have been more than 100 documented rollbacks to existing protections or short-sighted policies that threaten public health and our air, water, wildlife, and lands. 

Many of the administrative wins we celebrated over the last decade were among those rolled back. The fate of others — like the Bureau of Land Management’s methane waste prevention rule — remains uncertain as challenges are still working their way through the courts. And while there are some rules that the incoming administration will be able to restore and it will certainly abandon some public land policies like “energy dominance,” we’ve lost important ground. 

To be sure, the Outdoor Council looks forward to an incoming administration that is less hostile to our mission. At the same time, we are wary of ambitious campaign goals that don’t take Wyoming values into account. For example, in the urgency to transition away from fossil fuels, proposals for industrial-scale wind and solar development on public lands in Wyoming shouldn’t be rushed. Development should be encouraged in already disturbed areas so that, in our effort to mitigate climate impacts, we don’t harm intact habitat and our most cherished open spaces and public lands. 

And we’ll be careful not to rely too heavily on federal policy for solutions to the specific challenges we face in Wyoming. We don’t relish what has come to feel like a game of administrative ping-pong. 

Instead, what we strive for — regardless of who occupies the White House — are common-sense conservation initiatives and environmental policies that endure. Although incremental progress isn’t as newsworthy as sweeping change, we’re playing a long game. We’d much rather build on measured steps forward than have fleeting successes that can’t withstand the next election. 

What we strive for — regardless of who occupies the White House — are common-sense conservation initiatives and environmental policies that endure.

Assuming they work as promised, we support state-level initiatives. Past examples include  rules for detecting and fixing methane leaks in new and modified oil and gas fields and requiring baseline water testing before oil and gas drilling. We’ve also supported executive orders for sage-grouse conservation and big game migration corridors, although we continue to scrutinize their implementation.

And when we advocate for big policy solutions with the power to deliver conservation wins, we also champion strong public processes. We’re dedicated to empowering citizens in local communities to help craft lasting solutions. In the coming year we’ll build on the groundwork we laid in 2020 to seek consensus recommendations for large-scale renewable energy siting, support community-led climate change resolutions like the one recently adopted in Lander, and work with Tribal partners and other citizens toward permanent protection for parts of the incredible Northern Red Desert. 

Our approach to conservation keeps us grounded in Wyoming. This doesn’t mean that we are always successful. There are frequent setbacks, but it’s this approach that accounts for the conservation gains we’ve celebrated over the last 54 years. With your support, I’m confident we’ll continue this progress — not just in the coming year or coming four years, but for the long haul. 

Field Notes


Field Notes: November updates from the Wyoming Outdoor Council

Posted on by Alan Rogers
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TETON COUNTY COMPREHENSIVE PLAN UPDATES

The Teton County Board of Commissioners and Jackson Town Council voted to approve a number of updates to the county’s comprehensive land use plan. This document, which will guide development over the coming years, was revised to include important water quality protections proposed by the Wyoming Outdoor Council and Protect Our Water Jackson Hole. Chief among them is a directive for the county to develop a wastewater management plan that will address rising levels of nitrates in the Snake River Aquifer, which serves as the county’s only source of drinking water. 

A patchwork of small wastewater plants, independent sewer districts, and private septic systems are serving Jackson Hole’s growing population, and some of these systems are unable to keep up with the demand or otherwise not functioning as intended. The wastewater management plan is expected to lead to improved regulation of treatment facilities and septic systems. 

In the comprehensive plan, the county recognizes the public’s right to clean, affordable drinking water and the importance of the Snake River Aquifer. The plan also commits the county to:

  • Gather baseline data and coordinate with other agencies to monitor water quality.
  • Investigate regulations and ordinances to protect public water systems.
  • Examine new tools to protect water quality, such as an aquifer protection overlay.
  • Encourage public water suppliers to establish or update source water assessments and protection plans.

AETHON INJECTION REQUEST

The Wyoming Oil and Gas Commission voted to allow a company to inject oil and gas wastewater from the Moneta Divide field into the Madison formation, an aquifer protected under the Safe Drinking Water Act. This is unfortunate: More than 100 written comments, as well as public testimony before the commission, were unanimously opposed to this decision.

The company argued the depth of the aquifer at the well site, and levels of benzene in groundwater samples taken from the well, make it an impractical fresh water source. But the benzene may in fact be contamination from drilling mud used to bore the well and the state Department of Environmental Quality previously determined the aquifer was a viable source of drinking water. There’s also evidence that wastewater injected at the site will eventually spread.

In the arid West, faced with the uncertainty of a changing climate, we aren’t willing to sacrifice a source of fresh water that may prove invaluable to future generations. The EPA has final say on whether to approve the Oil and Gas Commission’s action and we’ll continue to defend potential drinking water sources.

 

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Field Notes


Field Notes: October updates from the Wyoming Outdoor Council

Posted on by Alan Rogers
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MONETA DIVIDE

The Wyoming Department of Environmental Quality recently issued a final wastewater discharge permit for the Moneta Divide oil and gas field. In response to environmental concerns and strong public opposition, the permit rejects Aethon Energy’s request to increase (by almost 400 percent) the amount of contaminated water it discharges into tributaries of Boysen Reservoir, and includes stronger pollution controls. Engaged citizens like you were crucial to guiding this decision: thank you! 

This new permit is still not without flaws, however. It gives Aethon four years to come into compliance with the new standards despite ongoing violations of the previous, more lenient permit. The Outdoor Council will continue to advocate for an accelerated compliance schedule. 

Aethon is now seeking to inject some of its contaminated water into the Madison formation, a drinking water quality aquifer protected under the Safe Drinking Water Act. The Wyoming Oil and Gas Commission will hold a hearing November 10 to consider this proposal. We’re asking Outdoor Council members to contact the commission and ask them to protect our drinking water by denying Aethon’s request.


TETON COUNTY STATE LANDS

During the 2020 session, the Wyoming Legislature passed a bill soliciting proposals for parcels of state land in Teton County. The Outdoor Council has collaborated with several partner organizations to submit recommendations on these parcels to the Office of State Lands and Investments. 

Most of the parcels in question are adjacent to federal public lands — primarily Grand Teton National Park and Bridger-Teton National Forest. We support selling these parcels to the federal agency in question to keep them open to the public and free from development, while also generating revenue for the state. For parcels surrounded by private land we recommended a mix of solutions including conservation easement, transfer to the Wyoming Game and Fish Commission to manage as wildlife habitat, and private development adhering to the Teton County Comprehensive Plan. 

Because these land transfers could take years to implement, we also proposed uses of these lands that could produce revenue for the state in the short term. These include conservation leasing, leases for recreation or tourism, and maintaining existing cattle grazing.

 

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Field Notes


Public Lands Lease Report: Wild Speculation in Wild Places

Posted on by John Rader

While local governments, businesses, and individuals wrestle with the impacts of coronavirus, public lands leasing to the oil and gas industry continues unabated. But this irresponsible federal leasing in Wyoming started well before the pandemic. In recent years, the Bureau of Land Management has drastically ramped up the amount of acreage available for leasing. Hundreds of thousands of acres of public land in Wyoming — including some of our most cherished landscapes and wildlife habitat — have been auctioned for development, with many parcels going for bargain basement prices.

The BLM is required to manage public lands for “multiple use,” balancing a wide range of activities and uses on our public lands — from outdoor recreation to wildlife habitat, preservation of historic and cultural sites, livestock grazing, industrial uses, and more. But today, over a third of all federal public lands in Wyoming are already leased to oil and gas companies for development. At a national level, 90 percent of BLM lands are available for leasing and new federal resource management plans across the West are opening up even more lands to industry, putting recreation and wildlife at risk. 

At the Wyoming Outdoor Council, we wonder where the balance is — and why our exceptional wildlife, outdoor recreation, and historical and cultural resources are being ignored.

That’s why we’re publishing a two-part report on the management of public lands in Wyoming, which includes infographics, photos, and interactive maps so you can better understand what’s at stake. 

Part I, which we’re releasing today, focuses on speculative oil and gas leasing in Wyoming. Specifically, we touch on the scale of leasing in Wyoming, where leases are located, and what resources they are impacting.

Part II, which we’ll publish along with the release of the long-awaited BLM draft resource management plan for the Rock Springs field office, will focus on this plan.- The RMP will dictate the management of millions of acres of public land in Wyoming for decades to come. The region includes treasured places like the Red Desert and irreplaceable wildlife habitat like the Red Desert to Hoback mule deer migration corridor and the Golden Triangle.

READ THE REPORT HERE