DENVER—Following canceled sales of federal energy leases elsewhere in the region, state and local officials and conservationists are calling on the Bureau of Land Management to do the same in Colorado.
And their arguments are similar to those recently aired before leases were yanked from the auction block in Utah and Montana: the need for more analysis of the potential environmental impacts.
A good chunk of the nearly 187,000 acres up for lease in Colorado in the Nov. 8 BLM auction is in critical wildlife habitat, say state wildlife officials, environmental, hunting and angling groups.
Some of the 171 parcels are in watersheds, community officials say.
The North Park area in west-central Colorado, site of some of the proposed leases, is “one of the most substantial greater sage grouse core areas,” said Ron Velarde, manager of the Colorado Division of Wildlife’s northwest district.
“We’re concerned about habitat fragmentation, impacts to (mating grounds), impacts to total populations,” Velarde said in a telephone interview Wednesday.
Wildlife managers throughout the West are studying the best ways to conserve the greater sage grouse, which some environmentalists believe should be on the endangered species list because its numbers have plummeted.
The Division of Wildlife also points to the potential effects of gas drilling on native Colorado River cutthroat trout and the Gunnison sage grouse, found only in western Colorado and an area straddling the Colorado-Utah border.
Velarde said a basin between Meeker and Craig in northwest Colorado, where more leases are proposed, is an important migratory route for some of the country’s largest deer and elk herds.
The Wildlife Division didn’t file a protest but asked the BLM to withdraw leases in the wildlife habitat until the federal agency finishes updating long-term management plans for those areas. Velarde said wildlife officials, who met last week with the BLM, are concerned about the cumulative impacts of energy development in western Colorado, one of the state’s natural gas hot spots.
“Given the volume of parcels in this sale that’s hitting critical habitat, the BLM should really be thinking carefully before they keep going with this,” said Josh Pollock of the Denver-based Center for Native Ecosystems, which filed a protest Wednesday of proposed leases.
Last month in Utah, the BLM canceled its oil and gas lease auction set for Nov. 13 because of “concerns over adequacy of existing environmental compliance in light of availability of new wildlife habitat information.” The BLM suspended leases on about 29,000 acres in Utah late last year after an Interior Department review board said the agency failed to follow environmental policies before the leases were issued.
Dozens of oil and gas leases were withdrawn from a BLM auction in July in Montana after conservation groups and state officials voiced concern about wildlife.
Colorado BLM spokeswoman Jaime Gardner said it’s unlikely the November auction will be canceled. She said the BLM considers the effects on wildlife and some leases could be deferred.
“The state director is still making decisions about any deferrals,” Gardner said.
Colorado U.S. Rep. Mark Udall has joined elected officials in Grand County who want leases there pulled from the upcoming auction. The Democratic lawmaker wrote in a letter to Sally Wisely, the Colorado BLM director, that communities weren’t aware of the sale and action on the leases should be deferred until the public can review them.
Granby in Grand County has filed a protest of leases on roughly 31,000 acres around the town. Granby Mayor Ted Wang said the town’s issues include the potential effects on wildlife, wetlands and waterways.
He added that the resort town couldn’t handle the influx of transient workers he has heard about from Colorado communities where gas drilling is already happening.
“We’re already struggling to make ends meet in terms of schools and public health,” Wang said.
Another reason the town filed a protest is that it wasn’t notified of the leases even though the town is a cooperating agency with the BLM, which means it has the right to give input, Wang said.
Gardner of the BLM said the agency tries to keep communities informed through the media and other avenues, including notifying county commissioners about proposed leases. She said the BLM is always interested in improving the process.
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