GREELEY — As sides take up the debate over proposed oil and gas development on the Pawnee National Grassland, one flank of the opposition has already conceded its fight.
“There is really not much you can do to stop this energy machine from coming in and taking what it wants from the land,” said Bill Miller, president of the Fort Collins chapter of the Audubon Society.
Miller and other birding and environmental groups value the 193,060 acres of wind-swept prairie along the Wyoming border northeast of Greeley as prime nesting and breeding ground for burrowing owls, mountain plover and the chestnut collared longspur. Tour groups from around the country trek to the Pawnee, sometimes twice a year, to watch and admire birds whose natural habitat is dwindling rapidly.
But as energy companies eager to tap the vast reserves in the Niobrara shale formation beneath much of northeastern Colorado carve that habitat with oil and gas lines, birds and tour groups may be driven away, said Forrest Davis, owner of High Lonesome Bird Tours in Sierra Vista, Ariz.
Davis said his company will bring two tours of 16 people to the grasslands this year. All of his clients hope to glimpse a sage thrasher or a soaring bird of prey while they still can, he said.
“There used to be huge expanses of this habitat from Canada to Mexico,” said Davis. “But now it’s been segmented and broken up. And, unfortunately in our society, if it’s not producing anything, it’s not worth much to some people.”
Oil and gas companies, however, see plenty underneath the publicly owned grasslands including untapped reserves of fuel they hope to plumb.
Four companies have been approved to do exploratory work on the grasslands, and three of them have already done work there, said John Bustos, a spokesman for the U.S. Forest Service, which manages the grasslands.
The companies are using seismic surveys to pinpoint the location of reserves. A seismic wave is created on the surface of the ground along a predetermined line, according to the Oil And Gas Lawyer Blog, an oil industry publication.
By analyzing the time it takes for the seismic waves to reflect off subsurface formations and return to the surface, a geophysicist can map subsurface formations and anomalies and predict where oil and gas may be trapped.
“There are no explosives being used for exploration on the Pawnee National Grassland, just the vibrator and the recording trucks and, in some cases, just the recording trucks,” Bustos said.
The vibrator truck is on private land and the recording truck and geophones are on the Pawnee, he said.
No company has yet to apply for extraction on the Pawnee, said Bustos, adding that the U.S. Forest Service will make a final recommendation to the Bureau of Land Management, which must approve every plan.
“A lot will be considered — the archaeology of the area, wildlife habitat and the vegetation,” Bustos said. “There is a lot of grazing out there, and farmers and ranchers depend on the Pawnee for their livelihood.”
But many of the surrounding communities are happy to see energy company activity on the Pawnee and in other areas of wide-open Weld County, said Ault Mayor Jerre White.
The town of about 1,400 residents has struggled while other communities in Weld County have enjoyed housing and commercial booms over the past several years, White said.
About 25 to 30 members of a seismic crew already buy gas and eat at restaurants in Ault, he said, and they are welcome.
“For the longest time, Ault has pretty much stood still,” White said. “But this now, finally, is an exciting time for Ault.”
He concedes that he’s no expert on the environmental implications of drilling on the grasslands. But White is sure the positives all outweigh the negatives.
“I’m not much of a birdwatcher,” he said. “But I just can’t see an oil rig having that much impact.”
Monte Whaley: 720-929-0907 or mwhaley@denverpost.com
