BLM to Synchronize Oil and Gas Management with State Big Game Protections / Public News Service

The federal Bureau of Land Management has released a new plan for public lands management that aligns oil and gas management with Colorado’s policy on big game conservation.

Suzanne O’Neill, executive director of the Colorado Wildlife Federation, said the proposed final plan, which will affect BLM-managed lands in all 64 Colorado counties, is an important step toward protecting Colorado’s iconic wildlife.

“It will help protect habitat for mule deer, elk, pronghorn and bighorn sheep,” O’Neill said. “These populations occupy nearly three-quarters of the 8.3 million surface acres the BLM manages.”

The plan would amend the management plans for 12 BLM field offices in Colorado by limiting active oil and gas sites to one per square mile in high-priority big game habitats. It would also require operators to minimize and compensate for direct, indirect and cumulative negative impacts to wildlife. The proposed final revision to the BLM’s Western Solar Plan is expected to be released this summer.

John Howard, former chairman of the Colorado Parks and Wildlife Commission during the Hickenlooper administration, believes the plan will provide more certainty for energy developers and also reduce the bureaucracy that comes with dealing with multiple, often inconsistent, regulatory regimes.

“I think most of them will respond very positively to something that aligns so well with the federal government, the state government and the local government,” Howard predicted.

The BLM is charged with managing lands owned by all Americans for multiple uses, including hunting, fishing, camping, rafting and hiking. O’Neill pointed to a 2020 report that found work is also needed to ensure that trails and other recreation areas don’t harm wildlife.

“They need to be put in the right place so they don’t disturb animals that are giving birth in the spring or trying to migrate,” O’Neill urged. “They need to be put in the right places.”

This reporting was supported by The Pew Charitable Trusts.

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Virginia’s Marine Resources Commission lifts ban on winter blue crab harvest.

Crabbing is permitted from March to mid-December. Extending the harvest season would target adult female crabs, which could harm the future of the species. Environmental groups argued that the Blue Crab Stock Assessment Committee’s research does not support an increase in harvest.

Chris Moore, executive director of the Chesapeake Bay Foundation in Virginia, said the results of recent winter dredging studies show it was a poorly timed decision.

“For the last eight or nine years or so, we’ve actually seen higher numbers of adult females every year, going back to 2016, except for 2022,” Moore said. “That was the year we saw the lowest total number of crabs in that winter dredging study.”

The most recent winter dredge survey showed a continued decline of about 20 million blue crabs in the Chesapeake Bay. Moore noted that the committee’s decision is preliminary and depends on several prior determinations, ranging from the length of the season, number of participants, allowable catch and location of harvest. A final decision is set for September.

Reopening the winter harvest will not endanger or eliminate blue crabs in Virginia waterways because of population thresholds. Moore thinks the committee should wait until a stock assessment with Maryland and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration is complete. Since the last assessment was done in 2011, he argued that more is known about blue crabs.

“We continue to learn more about the population dynamics of the blue crab,” Moore emphasized. “We continue to learn more about some of the predators of the blue crab, like catfish, and so we really need to think about what the status of the resource is now in terms of managing the species.”

Moore added that the results of the stock assessment can better inform how blue crab populations can be managed. Studies show that about a quarter of the female blue crab population will be removed from the Chesapeake Bay by fishing by 2023, which is below both the threshold for pausing harvest and the goal for sustainable blue crab fishing.

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The Bureau of Land Management says it will launch a roundup of wild horses in Wyoming’s White Mountain region, but conservationists say the plan exceeds the agency’s authority.

The BLM plans to round up nearly 600 wild horses in an area northwest of Rock Springs starting August 15, in an effort to prevent “further deterioration” of the health of the land from the animals’ impacts.

According to the group Wild American Horse Conservation, the agency used incorrect data to arrive at that number, for example by incorrectly counting the number of foals.

Suzanne Roy, director of the group, said the poor numbers pose a problem for the local ecotourism company that supports the horses through a Wild Horse Scenic Loop ride.

“We’re very concerned that the BLM is playing with numbers to remove more horses than they’re legally allowed to,” Roy said. “And if they’re allowed to go ahead, it’s going to reduce the herd to such a low number that you’ll never be able to see the horses again.”

In ’roundups’ horses are collected in pens until they are adopted.

But Roy said more horses are being held than the adoption market can absorb, and that difference costs taxpayers about $70 million a year.

Roundups are an alternative method of population control to sterilization. But Roy said her group advocates fertility control instead.

“It’s actually called immunocontraception,” Roy said. “It’s a vaccine that triggers an immune response in animals and prevents fertilization.”

Roy said this method is also reversible, which is important in the event of unexpected population declines.

The BLM is a multi-functional agency charged with balancing the interests of various parties, including the public, grazing rights, and various wildlife species.

James “Micky” Fisher, chief of the BLM’s Wyoming office’s public affairs division, said the agency is not opposed to fertility treatments, but they do make them more difficult to perform.

“Unfortunately, in areas with herd management of this size and even larger, the numbers of horses we need to collect to achieve the appropriate levels of management, fertility treatments and tranquilization methods are simply not enough,” Fisher said.

A larger study is currently underway in four herd management areas in central Wyoming.

According to Fisher, the BLM began the roundup on July 1 and collected more than 2,700 animals.

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Wildlife experts are warning people not to get too close to animals in national parks as the summer season gets underway. Over-enthusiastic tourists could not only endanger themselves, but also the animals.

Three million people visit Yellowstone National Park in Montana each year, many of them wanting to have their picture taken with the iconic bison, which are now being reintroduced to the wild and are facing extinction.

Chamois Anderson, senior representative for the Rockies and Plains program at Defenders of Wildlife, said that while interacting with animals is part of the national park experience, it’s important to give the bison their space, so tourists should keep their distance.

“You know, they’re going to pull off the road to go see bison, or maybe bears if they see one,” Anderson said, “and they just want to get that selfie or that picture with their cell phone, and they approach these animals like they’re in a zoo. These aren’t zoos. These animals are very wild, and we need to keep them wild.”

Anderson says she advises park visitors to stay at least 25 yards away from bison, and 200 yards away from bears and wolves.

Defenders of Wildlife has posted a video on YouTube explaining what to watch out for when interacting with animals in Glacier and Yellowstone National Parks in Montana.

Tracy Davids, senior southeast field representative for Defenders of Wildlife in North Carolina, said the group is doing more than just educate tourists. They’re also asking professional photographers to leave the remaining 20 red wolves in the state’s eastern wetlands alone.

“Especially now during puppy season, we’ve had reports of photographers getting a little too close,” Davids said. “Not necessarily in a way that puts themselves in danger, but in a way that harasses the wolves.”

An 83-year-old South Carolina woman was seriously injured when she was gored by a bison in Yellowstone in June.

According to the National Park Service, the bison was defending its territory, came within a few feet of the woman and lifted her about a foot off the ground with its horns.

According to the Park Service, bison injure more people in Yellowstone than any other animal, an average of one or two per year.

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