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The Powder River Basin
is a fourteen million acre tract of land in southeastern Montana
and northeastern Wyoming. It is comprised of public federal lands,
public state lands and private lands. The area boasts
world-class hunting and fishing. There are outstanding opportunities here
for elk, mule deer, upland birds
and great wild turkey hunting. Also, the Tongue and Powder Rivers
offer phenomenal fishing for sauger, walleye
paddlefish, catfish and a host of other species.
Sportsman in Wyoming and Montana widely identify the Powder River Basin
as one of the best locations for big game hunting
and upland bird hunting. In any given year,
this area supports the activities of around 11
thousand hunters. But the Powder River Basin is home to something
besides just rich, renewable wildlife resources.
This area is also loaded in non-renewable
energy resources. Coal, coalbed methane,
and oil and gas abound here. The Bureau of Land Management
is proposing to extract trillions of cubic feet of coal bed methane
from over three million acres of public land on Montana's portion
of the Powder River Basin. Impacts from coal bed methane drilling
include networks of roads, pads pipelines,
power lines, transmission stations, holding ponds of highly saline water,
and noisy compressors. All of which can threaten habitat and disrupt wildlife.
A recent coal bed methane boom in Pinedale, Wyoming
has attributed to a loss of over sixty percent of wintering mule deer
populations
in the developing gas field. Coal bed methane development
in the Wyoming part of the Powder River Basin has attributed
to an over eighty percent decline in sage grouse populations,
where development has taken place over the last decade. Access
and quality hunting are also impacted by oil and gas development.
Development brings more roads and more access into sensitive areas,
which means you have a greater influx of people which can lead to poaching,
over harvesting and other law enforcement issues. But sportsmen could
do something about it. We can join the Theodore Roosevelt Conservation
Partnership
and other sportsmen conservation organizations in promoting science-based
recommendations like the TRCP's
facts for fish and wildlife. Which would allow for energy development to be
balanced with the means of wildlife
and sportsmen. But most importantly, hunters and fishermen need to be aware what's
going on.
America has a rich abundance of home-grown energy resources.
but development of these resources should not come
at the expense of our public lands, our public wildlife
and the conservation heritage that our grandchildren
will one day inherit from us.