WildEarth Guardians

Tuesday, April 15, 2014
Guardians Calls for no Fracking in Imperiled Sage Grouse Habitat in Colorado

Protest Filed to Stop the Auction of Oil and Gas Leases to Protect Western Wildlife
Contact: Jeremy Nichols (303) 437-7663

Additional Contact: 

Erik Molvar, WildEarth Guardians’ Sagebrush Sea Campaign Director, (307) 399-7910

Denver—Seeking to safeguard the declining sage grouse, a symbol of the American West’s wide-open spaces, WildEarth Guardians late Monday moved to halt plans by the federal government to sell more than 8,500 acres of new oil and gas leases in Colorado.

“Fracking is taking an immeasurable toll on America’s backyard, the western United States” said Jeremy Nichols, WildEarth Guardians’ Climate and Energy Program Director.  “The decline of the sage grouse is a disturbing sign of that we need to stop opening the door for more dirty energy development and start prioritizing real clean energy.”

In a protest filed with the U.S. Bureau of Land Management, Guardians, together with the conservation group, Rocky Mountain Wild, called on the agency to refrain from auctioning off eight new oil and gas leases in Rio Blanco and Moffat Counties in northwestern Colorado.

If sold, the leases would open the door for oil and gas drilling and fracking on over 8,500 acres of sage grouse habitat, transforming these areas into industrial landscapes. 

“The sage grouse is an indicator of the health and vitality of our western landscape,” said Erik Molvar, WildEarth Guardians’ Sagebrush Sea Campaign Director.  “If we frack the sage grouse to extinction, we lose the west.  All we’re asking for is restraint, that drilling and fracking at the least stay out of this imperiled species’ vital habitat.”

The sage grouse has declined by more than 60% throughout its range in the western United States due to the destruction and degradation of its sagebrush habitat.  The species is now being considered for protection under the U.S. Endangered Species Act because of its slide toward extinction.

The Bureau of Land Management has identified oil and gas drilling and fracking as a major threat to the grouse.  In 2011, a team of scientists convened by the Bureau recommended that sage grouse habitat receive utmost protection from oil and gas development.  In response, the Agency has set about revising land management plans for northwestern Colorado to protect the species.  These new plans, however, have not yet been finalized. 

In the meantime, the Bureau is continuing to auction off lands for oil and gas drilling and fracking, even in sage grouse habitat.

WildEarth Guardians’ protest calls on the Colorado State Director of the Bureau of Land Management to reverse its leasing plans.  The State Director has to respond prior to June 12, 2014, when the Agency has proposed to auction the proposed leases.