Members of public join calls for consideration of wildlife, habitat in Colorado’s North Park

By Judith Kohler

WALDEN, Colo. – Members of the public have added their voices to calls by conservationists, hunters and anglers for federal land managers to consider the potential impacts on wildlife and habitat when approving energy projects on public lands in North Park.

A total of 240 people signed petitions asking the Bureau of Land Management to use a master leasing plan, which looks at development’s cumulative impacts across the landscape, as it updates the resource management plan for the lands managed by its Kremmling office.

The deadline for comments on the draft management plan was Tuesday.

In an Oct. 28 letter to the BLM, the coalition Sportsmen for Responsible Energy Development and other groups also supported Alternative C in the draft plan and environmental impact statement. Michael Saul, attorney for the National Wildlife Federation, said the option ``offers serious consideration of habitat protection.’’

The potential of the Niobrara oil formation is driving exploratory drilling and interest in leasing in North Park and other parts of northern Colorado. The option preferred by the BLM would open about 625,200 acres in the area to oil and gas development. Under the draft plan’s Alternative C, about 382,400 acres would be open to leasing and drilling.

North Park, part of the area covered by the draft plan, is home to pronghorns, mule deer, moose, bears, mountain lions, greater sage-grouse, elk, badgers, river otters, more than 200 species of birds and the Arapaho National Wildlife Refuge.

``In the most basic sense, North Park, one of the West’s last lonely landscapes that still retain much of their native habitat and hunting and fishing traditions, is at risk,’’ the conservation groups wrote in the letter to the BLM. ``For this reason, our organizations are asking BLM to begin an immediate and formal process that will ensure that the needs of native wildlife and the habitats they need to survive are fully factored in before energy development begins, not as an afterthought.’’

Click here to read the full text sent to the BLM