FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Lynx Habitat Threatened by Oil and Gas Development

BLM Moves to Open Rio Grande National Forest to Drilling

Wildlife advocates and conservation groups filed formal protests yesterday of the Bureau of Land Management’s proposal to allow oil and gas drilling in tens of thousands of acres of forest in Southwest Colorado. Oil and gas drilling in this area would damage important wildlife habitat, including core habitat for the Canada lynx.

Denver, CO Thursday, April 24, 2008 Wildlife advocates and conservation groups filed formal protests yesterday of the Bureau of Land Management’s proposal to allow oil and gas drilling in tens of thousands of acres of forest in Southwest Colorado. Oil and gas drilling in this area would damage important wildlife habitat, including core habitat for the Canada lynx.

The BLM's May oil and gas lease sale would open 175,430 acres of public land across the state to drilling, including more than 140,000 acres of the Rio Grande National Forest.

“The BLM is opening to drilling some of the most important lynx habitat in the state," said Megan Corrigan, Staff Biologist at Center for Native Ecosystems, which filed a protest of numerous parcels in the BLM lease sale.

High elevation forested habitat in the area provides habitat that lynx need for denning and foraging. The construction of roads, well pads and drill rigs, along with truck traffic, noise, and increased human use, could push lynx out of the area. Heavy traffic and use of the area could put lynx at increased risk of deaths due to vehicle collisions and poaching.

The proposal to allow oil and gas drilling on such a large portion of the Rio Grande National Forest has stirred controversy because of concerns about the negative impacts to wildlife and watersheds. The protests are echoed by similar ones from city and county governments, individual landowners, and local businesses concerned about negative impacts to city and county infrastructure, municipal watersheds, and the quality of life in the area, which is located in the mountains of Southwest Colorado, near the small towns of Del Norte and South Fork.

The BLM can require strong measures to protect Canada lynx as long as these protections are included in the terms of the lease when the lands are opened for oil and gas drilling. However, the BLM has not included adequate protections in the terms of these leases, for the threatened Canada lynx, which is listed as a threatened species under the Endangered Species Act.

Though other parcels in lynx habitat are offered for lease in the upcoming sale, the greatest concentration are on the Rio Grande National Forest, part of the region identified by the Colorado Division of Wildlife as the “core release area” for the state’s nine year-old reintroduction program. More than two hundred Canada lynx were released in Colorado beginning in 2000. More than one hundred kittens have been documented since then, including several born to the native-born second generation of lynx in the region. The Rio Grande National Forest is one of the areas of highest concentration for the lynx who have been tracked as part of the reintroduction effort.

“Lynx face so many threats here already, even when they try to cross roads and highways,” said Josh Pollock, Conservation Director at Center for Native Ecosystems. “We certainly don’t need to add more roads and pipelines and drill rigs in their most sensitive and important habitat.”

Essential habitat for several other at-risk species is also at issue in the lease sale. Parcels are offered for sale that would affect greater sage grouse, Gunnison sage grouse, boreal owl, Colorado River cutthroat trout, and Rio Grande cutthroat trout.

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