If you agree that we need to postpone oil and gas leasing in mule deer migration corridors and winter range until we have a permanent, science-based regulation that protects our deer from development threats, add your name to this letter today!
Follow this link to learn more about mule deer and the threats that they face from
oil and gas development and other forms of disturbance.
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Healthy and sustainable wildlife is essential to Wyoming's economy and culture, and we need certainty — based in scientific research and backed by legally-enforceable stipulations — that these big game herds will be protected.
The importance of certainty in regulations is especially pronounced when it comes to mule deer, a species that exhibits high fidelity to migration routes, relies on functional winter range to survive harsh Wyoming winters, and does not acclimate to the presence of oil and gas infrastructure, even over generations. Even a small amount of disturbance in a migration corridor or on winter range can lead to a loss of habitat function, and potentially even prevent a herd from traveling between summer and winter range. Corridors can only continue to maintain function when they provide connectivity between seasonal ranges, as well as between the “stopover” areas where deer take advantage of the most nutritious forage. Even if most of a corridor is protected, a disruption in one portion could cause the entire pathway to lose function. Leading scientific research conducted in Wyoming clearly demonstrates that mule deer do not acclimate to oil and gas activity, that they are highly sensitive to disturbance, and that they cannot adapt or create new migration pathways even when their route is impeded. We are concerned that this scientific research is being ignored, obscured, and misrepresented.
The Bureau of Land Management has the duty and opportunity to minimize the risk that oil and gas leasing will degrade these habitats, disrupt migrations, and threaten our big game herds. It can do so without significant harm to the oil and gas industry. The BLM can defer these leases in whole, or even to partially defer them by removing from sale the portions that overlap these critical habitat types. In recent lease sales, the acreage up for lease that overlaps corridors and/or winter range have ranged between 5–8 percent of the total sale acres — a small fraction. In September, lease parcels overlapping the corridor sold at very low prices — between $2 and $9 per acre. Wyoming earned only a little more than $50,000 on these parcels. This price does not come close to justifying the potential permanent loss of big game herds that represent significant economic and cultural value for Wyoming, where hunting alone brings in hundreds of millions of dollars annually. It is clear that protecting this vital corridor is a much higher value. We cannot afford to take this type of risk, which means we cannot tolerate any uncertainty in the understanding and agreement between the state and federal land management agencies in regard to these corridors.
It is possible to have both healthy wildlife and sustainable energy development. Protecting big game migration corridors and crucial winter range habitats is not a threat to oil and gas companies, which already have thousands of permits to drill and large amounts of acreage to develop across Wyoming. Therefore, we're asking the Bureau of Land Management to defer all oil and gas leases in all upcoming lease sales that overlap mule deer migration corridors and crucial winter range until permanent science-based and legally-enforceable stipulations are developed.
We need clear, science-based rules and legally-enforceable agreements between the state and federal government to truly protect our deer. We must take the time to do this right, for the good of our herds and the future of our landscapes.