FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Oil and Gas Drilling Threatens Endangered Wildflower with Extinction

Coalition Acts to Save Rare Plant

A Bureau of Land Management proposal for more than 900 new oil wells in Utah's Uinta Basin threatens the endangered Pariette cactus with extinction, asserts a lawsuit filed today. Center for Native Ecosystems and the Utah Native Plant Society filed a formal "emergency listing petition" seeking immediate protection for this spectacular native wildflower in April, and were forced to seek help from the courts today because the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service still has not responded to their petition.

A Bureau of Land Management proposal for more than 900 new oil wells in Utah's Uinta Basin threatens the endangered Pariette cactus with extinction, asserts a lawsuit filed today. Center for Native Ecosystems and the Utah Native Plant Society filed a formal "emergency listing petition" seeking immediate protection for this spectacular native wildflower in April, and were forced to seek help from the courts today because the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service still has not responded to their petition.

"In the face of intense oil and gas drilling, the Pariette cactus is just hanging on," noted Tony Frates of the Utah Native Plant Society. "It is critically important that we protect it under the Endangered Species Act."

The proposed oil and gas drilling could irreversibly damage the only known habitat for Pariette cactus - a single drainage in eastern Utah’s Uinta Basin - as well as the Pariette Wetlands Area of Critical Environmental Concern.

This native plant's precarious status is well known, and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has been considering adding Pariette cactus to the Endangered Species Act list for over a decade. The Bureau of Land Management refers to the Uinta Basin as "Utah's oil patch" for good reason. In 2004, 1,006 permits to drill were approved by the state in Uintah and Ducshesne Counties (the counties where Pariette cactus occurs), and these accounted for over 91% of the permits issued that year. The BLM estimates that over 6,500 more wells will be drilled in the Uinta Basin in the next 15 years.

"They’ve been making a lot of promises, but they haven’t signed the final decision yet," said Erin Robertson, Staff Biologist for Center for Native Ecosystems. "Their promises have a way of disappearing before the ink dries." The BLM claims that it will protect Pariette cactus from the proposed drilling.

The Service is investigating BLM charges that the oil company proposing the additional drilling bulldozed several Pariette cactus plants this summer.

Pariette cactus has beautiful pink flowers and short spines which make it unique.

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