Key U.S. Senate Committee passes bill to protect the Wyoming Range mountains

Here is some good news.

The U. S. Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee yesterday passed a bill closing 1.2 million (!!) acres of the Wyoming Range mountains to natural gas exploration and production. This highly scenic, unstable, and wildlife rich mountain range is west of Big Piney and Daniel and south of Jackson, Wyoming. Little known outside the state of Wyoming, it is one of those rare places favored for protection from the oil industry by a state’s two Republican senators, a fact that moved it through the Senate Committee.

It still needs full Senate approval and action by the U.S. House of Representatives.

The area to the Range’s the east, the Green River Basin, has become a major natural gas production area of the United States. The Wyoming Range is also favorable to gas deposits, but its complex Overthrust Belt geology means the gas fields will be harder to find and broken up. The gas is likely to be sour (laced with deadly hydrogen sulfide gas), and exploration and production horribly corrupting of the landscape.

“Under the Wyoming Range Legacy Act of 2007, no additional oil and gas leasing, mining patents or geothermal leasing would be allowed in the 100-mile-long area of the range that is part of the Bridger-Teton National Forest in western Wyoming.” Read the rest in the Casper Star Tribune. By Noelle Straub. Star-Tribune Washington bureau

Some photos, I posted to Panaramio of parts of the Wyoming Range included in this legislation.

http://www.panoramio.com/photo/1901416
http://www.panoramio.com/photo/1902488
http://www.panoramio.com/photo/1995409
http://www.panoramio.com/photo/6194709
http://www.panoramio.com/photo/6210892
http://www.panoramio.com/photo/6224555
http://www.panoramio.com/photo/6225358

Nevada quakes continue. Are they foreshocks rather than aftershocks?

On Feb. 21, 2008 there was a moderately powerful earthquake of 6.3 near Wells, Nevada. Naturally that was followed by many aftershocks. But now geologists are wondering if something unusual may be underway, especially as the quakes seem to have migrated toward populous Reno, Nevada.

Sometimes moderately large quakes are foreshocks of a really big one.

Reno urged to prepare for worse as earthquakes continue. By Martin Griffith. Associated Press.

Update. April 30. Scientists seek clues as Reno earthquakes keep shaking. By Sandra Chereb. Associated Press.

Nevada has hundreds of mountain ranges. Most of them are classic fault block uplifts. There are thousands of active faults.

Monitor earthquakes around the world as they happen at USGS World Earthquake page.

Note: most of southern Idaho (where I live) felt the Wells quake quite distinctly.

Governor Freudenthal says drilling industry has too much influence over gas leasing

Governor: Forest deal ‘suspect’ - Federal government gave energy company broad influence over study of Wyoming Range. By Noah Brenner and Cory Hatch, Jackson Hole, Wyo. Jackson Hole News and Guide.

In the process of drilling a well on public land, granting of the lease is the most important legal step. Once the lease is granted, it is almost impossible to stop a well from being drilled short of buying back the lease.

When the government gives a lease or sells a lease, it has transferred a property right. If the Forest Service is in bed with the drilling industry to issue leases without proper analysis, it is actually a form of theft from the public.

Good to see the governor taking some action to protect the Wyoming mountain range. This is a very unstable mountain range. It is subject to mass movement (landslides of all sizes when roads are built). It is also a very scenic range and just full of elk. It could also have a large bighorn sheep herd and lots of wolves and bears, but the livestock industry, especially the sheep industry has kept the bighorns in jeopardy, put the wolves of the area into Wyoming’s new wolf-are-now-vermin zone, and have kept black bear numbers low.

Yet another company gives up oil and gas leases on the Rocky Mountain Front

Montana’s Rocky Mountain Front seems to be the only place in the Rocky Mountains where the oil companies are not getting what they want.

That’s good news, but unfortunately the exception that proves the rule.

Energy company cedes its oil, gas leases along Front to Trout Unlimited. Kohlman Co. gives 33,411 acres to Trout Unlimited for preservation. Karl Puckett. Great Falls Tribune Staff Writer

Wyoming Range bill to get US Senate panel hearing this month - (Feb. 2008)

 There is good news on efforts to protect the Wyoming Range from the drillers.

Wyoming Range bill to get February hearing. By Cory Hatch. Jackson Hole Daily.

The Public Lands and Forests Subcommittee of the Energy and Natural Resources Committee will hold the hearing on the Wyoming Range Legacy Act of 2007 at 2:30 p.m. on Feb. 27.

Forest Service could quash Wyoming Range leases

This doesn’t meant they will, but Sen. John Barrasso, R-Wyo has a bill to stop leasing and buyout and permanently retire areas already leased.

Story in the Casper Star Tribune. By Chris Merrill.

Update Gov. Freudenthal seeks delay on Wyo. Range drilling plan. AP

For those folks who love the mountains adjacent to the Tetons and Yellowstone, don’t overlook the 700,000 acre Wyoming Range. It is truly a beautiful place.

Background. Wyoming Range Legacy Act Introduced!

For interactive map and photos of the roadless areas in the Wyoming Range, go to roadlessland.org and select the Grayback Ridge and/or the South Wyoming Range roadless areas. Direct link to Grayback. Direct link to South Wyoming Range. Direct link to the Commissary Ridge roadless area.

Bighorn sheep reintroduced to island mountain ranges in Utah

A nice thing about a number of the isolated mountain ranges in the Great Basin is there are no domestic sheep, making the reintroduction of bighorn possible.

The reclamation of historic bighorn range is largely limited by domestic sheep, which quickly pass killer diseases to their wild cousins.

“Big day for bighorns: Mountain sheep get helicopter ride to new domains.” By Tom Wharton. Salt Lake Tribune.

Across the Great Salt Lake Desert to the Newfoundland Range. It’s surrounded by mud flats and salt flats. Sometimes, such as wet years, by water. Copyright © Ralph Maughan

Texas school land board delays action on Christmas Mountains

This is a followup on the earlier story on the Texas state school land board’s attempt to sell the Christmas Mountains (given to them 16 years ago as a gift). They are adjacent to Big Bend National Park.

Story: Action delayed in land dispute. Board declines to accept a bid for the Christmas Mountains site. By Gary Scharrer. Houston Chronicle Austin Bureau