label: THUNDER BASIN

GILLETTE - A U.S. Forest Service decision earlier this year rejecting several administrative appeals of the Northern Great Plains Management Plans Revision won't be the last word on the matter.

David Tenny, the U.S. Department of Agriculture's deputy undersecretary for Natural Resources and Environment, is conducting a "discretionary review" of the Forest Service's rejection. Tenny is expected to issue his decision "very soon," according to officials.

The Forest Service revised its Resource Management Plan for the Thunder Basin National Grassland in Wyoming and several other grasslands located in North Dakota, South Dakota and Nebraska. After the plans were completed, various groups filed a total of 16 appeals.

Several Wyoming counties, oil and gas developers and environmental groups were among the appellants. At issue in Wyoming is whether the new Resource Management Plan (RMP) for the Thunder Basin National Grassland is unnecessarily prohibitive of oil and gas development and whether the plan provides enough protections for wildlife and wildlife habitat.

Although the Wyoming appellants opposed one another during the revision of the Thunder Basin National Grassland RMP, they all agreed they didn't like the final plan that the Forest Service approved after more than seven years of work.

"The plan was a great step in the right direction, but they could have done a lot more. We're just really worried (wildlife protections) are going to be pushed back even more and more lands will be opened up for oil and gas drilling," said Jeremy Nichols, endangered species coordinator for the Biodiversity Conservation Alliance.

The Conservation Alliance was among several environmental groups to appeal. Nichols said the new Thunder Basin RMP does advocate protections for wildlife and wildlife habitat, but it lacks teeth to enforce protections - particularly for the black-tailed prairie dog.

"Their recovery goals were entirely discretionary," Nichols said.

In contrast, Campbell County and Yates Petroleum were among those who complained the 15-year plan unnecessarily includes areas of no surface occupancy and timing stipulations for oil and gas drilling that are

unreasonable. Other counties in northeast Wyoming complained that grazing allotments under the new plan are too limited and could lead to fuel-loading from undergrazing.

Tenny's discretionary review decision was due on April 14 - the date that represents the end of the mandatory 30-days required by federal statutes, according to a March letter by Gloria Manning, reviewing officer in the Department of Agriculture. John Twiss, assistant to undersecretary Mark Rey, said he didn't know why the decision is late.

"I was told he (Tenny) is very close to a decision," Twiss said.