Tell BLM: No Gas/Oil In Wild Horse Habitat
Comments Due by Wednesday, Oct 29, 2014
The Bureau of Land Management’s (BLM’s) Elko District in Nevada is asking for public comments on its draft Environmental Assessment (EA) for 24 parcels that have been nominated for auction for gas and oil development leases. Twelve of the parcels reside within the Antelope Valley Herd Management Area (HMA), which is currently home to over 700 wild horses. The BLM routinely excludes public lands from leasing for gas/oil exploration or production based on a multitude of reasons ranging from sensitive animal and plant species to livestock grazing interests. It’s time our federally-protected wild horses get equal protection.
The BLM acknowledges that if these parcels in the HMA are used for gas and oil exploration or production that the “[i]ncreased human and motorized activity could disrupt and displace wild horses.” In addition, hydraulic fracturing (“fracking”) used to extract oil and natural gas from beneath the ground, consumes large volumes of water. In these times of severe drought, when the BLM is talking about the need to remove even more horses from the range due to lack of water and forage, HMAs must be protected from these giant consumers of scarce water resources.
Please take action below to demand that the BLM revise its Draft EA to withdraw the 12 parcels that are located within the Antelope Valley HMA.
If you prefer, you can send your comments to the address below. All comments must be received no later than October 29, 2014.
Phone:775-753-0200
775-753-0200
ADDITIONAL INFORMATION
Elko, 2015 Oil & Gas Lease Sale EA
There are 8 wild horse herd management areas (HMA) managed by the Elko District Office. They are the Owyhee, Rock Creek, Little Humboldt, Diamond Hills North, Maverick-Medicine, Antelope Valley, Goshute, and Spruce-Pequop HMAs. These eight HMAs total approximately 1.8 million acres and have an appropriate management level (AML) of 1,338 wild horses. Wild horses inhabit these HMAs year round.
Deferred parcels 13 and 14 are within the Maverick/Medicine HMA
Following are the 12 parcels currently nominated for gas and oil lease sale, which reside within federally designated wild horse habitat:
- Parcels 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26 reside wholly in the Antelope Valley HMA
BLM Quotes from EA of Effects of the Proposed Action to Wild Horses or Burros:
There are no direct impacts to wild horses associated with leasing, however wild horses can be found within some of the HMAs and future exploration could affect wild horses within those HMAs. Increased human and motorized activity could disrupt and displace wild horses. The wild horses inhabiting the area of the exploration could leave the area and move away from the noise and activity. During any long term or permanent activity it is probable that wild horses over time would become accustomed to the activity and resume normal activities at a reasonable distance. Construction of new fences as part of development production facilities could disrupt movement of free roaming wild horses and animals could be injured by colliding with any new fences
Mitigations
Construction of fencing within a HMA would be evaluated during review of any development proposal to determine if flagging or other measures would be necessary to increase visibility to wild horses. Best management practices along with specific restrictions would be implemented to minimize negative impacts to wild horses.