FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

BLM Suspends Oil and Gas Leases in Black-footed Ferret Habitat

Internal review finds leases were issued illegally

The BLM suspended oil and gas leases in black-footed ferret habitat encompassing 29,000 acres in the Uinta Basin of Utah because their internal review board agreed with Center for Native Ecosystems that the leases were issued illegally.

Black-footed ferret.

The Bureau of Land Management officially suspended oil and gas drilling leases on over 29,000 acres of public land in the Uinta Basin near Vernal after an internal review board found that the leases were issued illegally and could put black-footed ferret recovery at risk.  The BLM informed oil and gas companies of the suspension via letters sent late last week.

The BLM sold the drilling leases in February 2003 over the objections of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and a Colorado-based conservation group, Center for Native Ecosystems.  The leases involved some of the last remaining potential habitat for black-footed ferrets in the Uinta Basin that had not already been leased to the oil and gas industry.

The ruling is not the first time that BLM has been told not to lease in sensitive areas without considering impacts.  In August, the courts found that the BLM illegally leased wilderness-quality lands in Utah.  Last year, the Government Accountability Office issued a report that concluded that increased oil and gas permitting had lessened the BLM’s ability to meet its environmental protection responsibilities. 

“How many times does the BLM have to be told that they can’t ram drilling through without environmental review?” said Josh Pollock, Conservation Director for Center for Native Ecosystems.

Center for Native Ecosystems protested the leasing, but the BLM issued the leases anyway.  The conservation group then filed an appeal with the BLM’s administrative review board, the Interior Board of Land Appeals.  On November 22, the board ruled in favor of conservationists, and determined that the leases were illegally issued.  Late last week the BLM officially suspended the leases and informed the oil and gas companies that they cannot drill in these areas until further notice.  No wells have been drilled on the leases yet.

The internal review board rebuked the BLM for ignoring the input of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, and for downplaying the importance of black-footed ferret reintroduction sites:  “BLM is in no position to assert that ferret reintroduction is not a matter of environmental significance, given language of the Diamond Mountain [Environmental Impact Statement] stating that it is of ‘critical national importance if the species is to be preserved’” (170 IBLA 348).  The board also agreed with the Service and conservationists that the stipulations the BLM added to the leases supposedly to protect the ferrets were ineffective:  “CNE is correct that the stipulation provides no assurance that impacts to the [ferret] reintroduction program can be mitigated to insignificance” (170 IBLA 349).  Finally, the board ruled that the BLM’s decision to issue the leases was irrational:  “We note as well that there is no rational basis in the record for conclusions” (170 IBLA 348).

The black-footed ferret, considered the most endangered mammal in North America, once inhabited prairie dog colonies throughout the West.  In the early 1900s, poisoning and the introduced disease, plague, took such a toll on prairie dog numbers that by the mid-1970s the black-footed ferret was thought to be extinct in the wild.  A single population of ferrets was discovered in Wyoming in 1981, but soon disease entered that population also, and all the remaining ferrets were captured and brought into captivity.  Since then, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has bred ferrets and reintroduced them to a handful of sites in North America, including Utah’s Coyote Basin. 

The leased areas in question are in the Snake John and Shiner parts of the Uinta Basin, near Coyote Basin.  Ferrets have naturally dispersed into the Snake John area, and the Service plans to eventually establish wild populations at both of these sites.

“The BLM’s policy is to approve drilling now and ask questions later, instead of encouraging responsible drilling,” said Erin Robertson, Staff Biologist for Center for Native Ecosystems.  “The agency needlessly risks even our most endangered wildlife.  The oil and gas industry already controlled over 80% of the potential ferret habitat in the Uinta Basin.  The internal review board did the right thing by saying that the BLM needs to consider all of our resources before granting more drilling rights.”

Center for Native Ecosystems is a nonprofit conservation organization based in Denver.  For a copy of the ruling, lease suspension letter, or high-resolution black-footed ferret photo, please visit:

http://www.nativeecosystems.org/species/black-footed-ferret/index_html/

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