A s one of our state’s oldest and most consistent advocates for wildlife, the Colorado Wildlife Federation has long recognized the importance of oil and gas development in Colorado. At the same time, we have consistently emphasized that oil and gas development must occur in a responsible and balanced manner if we are to sustain our irreplaceable wildlife resource.
On one side of the balance is the compelling call to protect wildlife for the benefit of this and succeeding generations. On the other is the oil and gas industry’s push to lease and drill the West’s land as quickly as possible.
Colorado wildlife’s side of the scale is tangible, fragile and of inestimable long-term value. Our wildlife species already face a multitude of threats, man-made and natural, including disease, loss of winter range and low stream flows. The unprecedented pace and scope of drilling are a growing threat. Expansion of that threat into ever-more sensitive and indispensable wildlife habitat compounds the danger.
Surveys show that the public places a special value on wildlife in Colorado as a factor in their quality of life and as an important segment of the state’s economy, contributing $2.5 billion from hunting, fishing and wildlife viewing and photography.
Wildlife-based recreation is a sustainable economic resource that will grow in importance if we fulfill our role as stewards of the West.
This wildlife resource is a national and international attraction that draws people to visit, spend time in and settle in Colorado. For these and other reasons, wildlife also provides substantial value that cannot be tallied on a balance sheet.
Survival of our wildlife heritage for the benefit of residents, visitors and future generations can be secured only if our actions at this defining juncture are consistent with these values.
We return again and again to the concept of balance — because that notion is necessary to ensure that today’s policies incorporate an effective line of sight to the long-term benefit of wildlife. We also recognize that a tension always exists between interests focused upon short-term gain and those that offer long-term value.
This week, the Colorado Oil and Gas Conservation Commission will conduct a formal hearing on its draft rules that are intended to minimize adverse impacts on wildlife as required under a state law unanimously adopted last year by the Colorado General Assembly. The Colorado Wildlife Federation and others worked hard on House Bill 1298. We believe the draft rules provide a judicious measure of protections and tools to increase the probability that wildlife populations can be sustained.
Many in the oil and gas industry are injudicious in demanding that the rules merely endorse their short-term view that they should be entitled to select any best-management practice they choose in the name of minimizing adverse impacts on wildlife. They argue unrelentingly against the wildlife protections specified in the draft rule.
By way of example, the president of the Colorado Oil and Gas Association urges the commission to slow down the process to create sound policy based on fact rather than “emotion and hyperbole.” The wildlife-protection provisions in the draft rules are not based upon flimsy assertions. They are grounded in the expertise of wildlife biologists.
The industry also conveniently omits the fact that timing limitations to protect specific species in key habitats such as winter concentration areas acts as a backstop. These limitations become applicable only if a company chooses not to avail itself of alternative tools. The rules appropriately provide incentives and tools for companies to factor in how to minimize adverse impact on wildlife in planning drilling operations.
Colorado’s palette of attractions, in which wildlife is certainly not the least, is the envy of much of the nation and the world. Colorado’s wildlife and the habitat it needs to survive are worth sustaining.
Suzanne O’Neill is executive director of the Colorado Wildlife Federation.
