Staff Reported

CHEYENNE — Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar announced earlier this week that the Bureau of Land Management will modify the federal oil and natural gas lease sale in Wyoming to allow more time for review and study of eight lease parcels of concern to the state.

The lease parcels consist of three adjacent to the Shoshone National Forest and five within or directly adjacent to the Jack Morrow Hills Coordinated Activity Plan boundary.

Salazar’s decision immediately followed a request from Gov. Dave Freudenthal, who formally sought the deferral of the eight lease parcels in a letter to the Bureau of Land Management’s Wyoming State Office earlier yesterday.

Freudenthal raised concerns over the value of certain parcels for wildlife, agricultural and recreational use and the need for further studies and plans to be completed.

The three parcels near the Shoshone National Forest, for example, are being operated under a management plan that has not been substantially revised since 1990. Since that time wolves have been reintroduced to the state, causing changes in wildlife movement as well as agricultural practices, and the area’s use by recreationalists has increased dramatically.

According to Freudenthal’s letter, the Wyoming Game and Fish Department was only given the opportunity to review these three parcels, and was not given the opportunity to weigh in on the Jack Morrow Hills (JMH) parcels.

Freudenthal added that “I have frequently expressed my concerns that adaptive management would only work with robust monitoring and data collection” yet  “the express requirements and strongly worded suggestions for monitoring and data collection outlined in the JMH Record of Decision have resulted in limited results. In the absence of a monitoring plan and even initial data sets, the concept of adaptive management seems to have ground to a halt. Consequently, the allocation of resources must also be slowed … until the necessary planning and data are available to demonstrate the appropriateness of such actions.”

Monday’s announcement by Salazar marks yet another
break from the previous administration on environmental policy.