Great News! More oil, gas leases retired along the Rocky Mountain Front

In 2006, Congress banned leasing federal lands on the Front, but many leases had already been given-

The effort to protect Montana’s Rocky Mountain Front from natural gas development has been and continues to be pretty successful. These oil, gas leases along the Front were the work of two NGOs, The Coalition to Protect the Rocky Mountain Front and Trout Unlimited.

The leases were bought from Donald Curry of Curry & Thornton of Ft. Worth, Texas.

This is very important grizzly bear habitat and deer, elk and moose spring, fall and winter range.

Leases Retired. By Karl Puckett. Great Falls Tribune Staff Writer

More on this. Added July 8, 2009. New lease arrangement advances preservation of Front. Great Falls Tribune.

Drill a fault for geothermal; trigger an earthquake?

Most geothermal developments use natural hot spring areas, but a new method may have great promise and danger-

Geothermal energy is regarded as a quasi renewable energy source because it does not use fossil fuels, uses the natural heat of the earth, and can be turned into clean electricity or for lower temperature sources for space heating by circulation of warm water. Iceland has made great strides in geothermal development.

However, hot spring areas do not occur everywhere, their useful life for geothermal energy is limited in time, and unique natural and scenic features are often destroyed in development.

As a result, developers want to drill deeper using the natural heat gradient of the Earth. The easiest way to do this is down a fault which provides a natural crack often leading to heat. Of course, faults are the cause and the result of earthquakes. Lubricating the fault with water seems a bit scary, but surprisingly a program is underway with more coming Idaho, Nevada, and California.

Deep in Bedrock, Clean Energy and Quake Fears. By James Glanz. New York Times.

My photo of an abandoned geothermal well in Raft River Valley, Idaho.

Wild Bighorns Threatened by Domestic Sheep

Another article about the menace of domestic sheep to our precious bighorn populations-

On the Range. Wild Bighorns Threatened by Domestic Sheep. By George Wuerthner. New West.
“Should domestic sheep be permitted to graze on public lands when their presence threatens the survival of wild bighorn sheep? That’s a question that is increasingly getting serious discussion around the West.”