The grasslands of the Northern Plains – primarily
under U.S. Forest Service jurisdiction – are home to abundant
wildlife, from deer and elk to endangered swift foxes, mountain
plovers and ferruginous hawks. But they are also the site of
promising oil and gas deposits. With the release of the final
environmental impact statement for the region’s 2001 management
plan revision, the grasslands have become the center of
controversy.
Kirk Koepsel of the Sierra Club says
changes between the draft and final environmental impact statements
are “pretty amazing, when it comes to oil and gas.” Draft plans
recommended 42,790 acres of wilderness designation in the Dakotas
and Wyoming, but the final plan sets aside only 3,800 potential
wilderness acres in South Dakota, opening some of the remaining
acres for oil and gas exploration.
“I can’t see
how anybody would view this as a move to open this up for oil and
gas,” says Claire Mosely, executive director of Public Lands
Advocacy, an oil and gas advocacy group in Denver. While the amount
of land available for exploration has increased, she says, there
have also been increased restrictions on
exploration.
The final plan excluded wilderness
recommendations in North Dakota and Wyoming because the states’
congressional delegations and local governments opposed them. But
the Forest Service will manage the excluded acres to “maintain
their wilderness characteristics,” says Bob Sprentall, a spokesman
for the agency.
The Forest Service has opened the
final environmental impact statement for public review and will
accept comments until Jan. 22. See the Web site at
www.fs.fed.us/ngp. Send comments to Nebraska National Forest, 125
N. Main St., Chadron, NE 69337-2118, Attn: Bob Sprentall; call
308/432-0300, or e-mail cloop@fs.fed.us.
Copyright © 2001 HCN and Dan Whipple
This article appeared in the print edition of the magazine with the headline National grasslands up for review.
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