Colorado sportsmen to oil/gas industry: 'protect fish, wildlife habitat'

GRAND JUNCTION — Ivan James is a bow hunter who happens to own stock in Exxon-Mobil Corporation.

 Exxon-Mobil’s profit was $40.6 billion last year, so James in not concerned if he makes a few cents less on his stock this year, he said. He’s more concerned that the oil and gas industry invest in measures to preserve wildlife habitat.

“I’d like to see where we recreate, hunt and fish, our beautiful scenery, preserved,” said James, who lives in Genesee, Colo.  Read more. 

State's ongoing lease auctions reignite fight over Front land

By MATTHEW BROWN
Associated Press

The decades-long fight over Montana's Rocky Mountain Front is heating up again. Wildlife officials and private conservation groups are seeking to stop the leasing of state-owned land in the area for oil and gas development.

It has been 18 months since drilling opponents declared victory on the picturesque, wildlife-rich Front. In December 2006, Congress approved a permanent ban on oil and gas extraction from federal land in the region.  Read more.

Hello energy development and goodbye to the Rio Grande

 

Pace determines ultimate impact

Letter to the Editor, Casper Star Tribune 

(May 16, 2008) In the Rocky Mountain West, the race for energy extraction has opened up millions of acres of public land for exploration, industrial-scale roads and drilling. The large number of newspaper articles focused on this big issue in Wyoming is testimony to that.

 As sportsmen and women, the original stewards of our wildlife, we need to get involved in the important conversations about our public lands! As hunters and anglers have joined the fray and expressed our dismay at the loss of habitat, agencies that manage our public lands continued to offer up the places deer rut, elk bugle and native trout spawn to oil and gas companies.  Read more.