WildEarth Guardians

Friday, January 18, 2008
State Game and Fish Asks Feds for Review of Drilling During Seasonal Closures

WildEarth Guardians Applauds State Action
Contact: WildEarth Guardians

Santa Fe, NM-Jan. 17. The New Mexico Department of Game and Fish expressed concern last week over exceptions to wildlife restrictions being granted by the Farmington Field Office of the Bureau of Land Management (BLM). In his letter, Game and Fish Director Bruce Thompson asked for a joint state/federal review of the criteria used to determine whether exceptions should be granted, a clear accounting of the exceptions, and coordination with Game and Fish when exception requests are received.

"The Department of Game and Fish…and State Game Commission are becoming increasingly concerned with recent assertions regarding the number and frequency of exceptions to wildlife protective restrictions that are being approved by the Farmington Field Office," Thompson stated in the letter.

Thompson further wrote that the criteria used by BLM in assessing whether to approve exceptions "may not be adequate" and further stated that "Questions also have been raised about whether the decisions approving requests for an exception are consistent with the Farmington Resource Management Plan."

The state's action follows on the heels of the December report by WildEarth Guardians, "No Rest for the Weary: Why Seasonal Oil & Gas Closures Aren't Protecting Wildlife in New Mexico." The report found that the BLM has approved breaches of wildlife closures nearly 1,000 times since 2000 and called for state and federal action on the issue.

"The state's letter is a good first step toward addressing the problem of the BLM allowing hundreds of breaches of wildlife seasonal closures," stated Dr. Nicole Rosmarino of WildEarth Guardians and author of "No Rest for the Weary." "The BLM pledged to the public that wildlife would enjoy increased protection from oil and gas drilling during critical winter and spring seasons but has routinely broken that promise. We support any state efforts to hold the BLM to their promise," continued Rosmarino.

Also in December, a coalition of more than forty individuals and groups representing hunting, conservation, and business, called on the BLM and the state to enforce the seasonal restrictions on oil and gas drilling and other disturbing activities and to withdraw some key areas from drilling altogether.

The Game & Fish Department met with BLM in February 2007 to discuss reforms regarding wildlife exceptions, including better documentation of the amount of existing disturbance from oil and gas development and possible modification of the criteria used to grant exceptions. But the BLM has failed to update data on the amount of drilling disturbance, relying on 2003 numbers despite the rapid pace of drilling since then. In addition, in its March 2007 response, the BLM refused the state's request to revisit the exceptions criteria.

In reply to WildEarth Guardians' report, the BLM has maintained that wildlife populations at issue are not in jeopardy and that the exceptions are being granted primarily for low-impact or even environmentally protective measures, such as pit closures. However, every year, many exceptions in Farmington are provided for new wells, roads and pipelines - activities that are neither routine nor environmentally beneficial. In contrast, pit closures seldom show up in the BLM's database of exceptions.

In the Farmington area, the BLM itself notes the threats facing elk and mule deer herds as they migrate south from Colorado and enter the intensively developed oil and gas fields in northwest New Mexico. The habitat is so damaged and forage so limited that mule deer have taken to eating pine needles, which causes abortion and starvation. The pronghorn populations in Farmington are tiny remnants.

For copies of the letters cited above, the WildEarth Guardians' report "No Rest for the Weary," and other background information, contact Dr. Nicole J. Rosmarino at 505-988-9126 x1156 or nrosmarino@fguardians.org.