WHITNEY ROYSTER Star-Tribune environmental reporter | Posted: Tuesday, May 9, 2006 12:00 am
JACKSON - An outdoors group is encouraging hunters and anglers to pressure public officials to restrict development in some of Wyoming's wild places.
Trout Unlimited representatives Monday said Wyoming is one of the "greatest places in the world to hunt and fish," and the economic impact of that recreation is often diluted in the face of explosive energy development on public lands.
Chris Hunt, communications director for Trout Unlimited, said there are 3.2 million acres of roadless areas in the state that are considered "special" for the wildlife and fisheries they support.
"We would like to see our governor and federal delegation take some initiative and ask their peers to consider these areas for protection in Wyoming," he said.
Tom Reed, Wyoming field coordinator for the group's public lands initiative, said the Wyoming Range in western Wyoming is among the most vulnerable in the state.
With three native species of cutthroat trout and tremendous hunting opportunities but no wilderness designations, the area is coming under pressure from energy development, Reed said. He was chief author of a report Trout Unlimited released Monday detailing what the organization calls a direct connection between hunting and fishing success and undeveloped backcountry.
He said with other oil and gas leasing in the Upper Green River Valley and mule deer populations declining on the Mesa in Pinedale, "If you hit these animals in their summer, transitory and winter range, it doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure out you don't have anything to hunt."
But the group stopped short of asking people to seek wilderness designations on the lands eyed for protection around Wyoming. These areas include lands on the Shoshone, Medicine Bow, Bridger-Teton and Bighorn national forests, and the Sierra Madre Mountains.
The group said oil and gas development is the biggest pressure on the backcountry, but proliferation of ATV trails and logging is also a concern.
Bruce Hinchey with the Petroleum Association of Wyoming said such designations would amount to "quasi wilderness." That means hunters and recreationists couldn't access much of the area, as most people don't have the time to walk so far into the backcountry.
And, he said, blocking an area to energy development will ultimately drive prices up.
"When you don't have access to potential oil and gas, it means you're relying on foreign sources," he said. "It's not good for the economy, nor is it good for the health and well-being of the United States, because it makes us more dependent on foreign oil."
Trout Unlimited representatives all agreed they, too, use energy. But Harry Harju, a retired Wyoming Game and Fish Department official, said hunters and anglers need to know when the energy thirst begins to affect them.
He said he doesn't want to see the backcountry treated as "some bastard stepchild" that is mistreated for short-term goals.
As more roads go in to the backcountry, more people will be there, which means hunting opportunities decrease, and hunters will see more people. Harju also said development on public lands means wildlife will go to private lands, where hunting is restricted.
He said the "economics of tourism" are valuable, and the state needs to stand by those.
The group said it is aiming to work with national forests, too, as new forest plans are developed. Those plans will delineate where development can occur, and where backcountry roadless areas will remain. The Bridger-Teton and Shoshone are currently developing new forest plans.
Gov. Dave Freudenthal has said he will participate in the forest planning process and leave roadless decisions to forest managers. Last year, the Bush administration overturned a Clinton-era roadless rule. That rule would have protected roadless areas across the country. Bush said roadless areas will not receive special protection, but governors can petition the federal government to keep areas roadless.
Freudenthal bristled at that idea, saying it was a waste of state resources, as the federal government could ultimately reject any proposal. He instead elected to work with the forests as they develop guidelines.
Environmental reporter Whitney Royster can be reached at (307) 734-0260 or at royster@tribcsp.com.