Getting Ahead of the Game

Even with successes at places like the Cotton-wood, Jonah remains an example of conservationists being a step behind, of conservation being an afterthought. Mitigation, even Kiesecker’s new brand, was tacked on at the end of the process, forcing all involved to operate on the fly.

Not surprisingly, such mitigation has its critics. “Off-site mitigation can be a very cheap way out for the oil and gas industry to avoid having to plan their projects in a way that can be environmentally sustainable,” says Erik Molvar of the Biodiversity Conservation Alliance, a Wyoming-based watchdog group. Ultimately, Molvar says, good planning is “more affordable and certain to actually protect the good habitat that we have in the first place.”

While off-site mitigation is an imperfect solution to habitat destruction, Kiesecker nonetheless views Jonah as a perfect proving ground for scientifically determined offsets and a springboard for even more ambitious approaches to mitigation and the kind of good planning Molvar advocates. In fact, BP has already hired the Conservancy to work on a second gas-drilling project that will dwarf Jonah.

Twenty-five air miles west of Rawlins, Wyoming, a desolate landscape, bisected by Interstate 80, encompasses the eastern end of the Red Desert, named for its red soil. This former haunt of outlaws is still home to occasional desert elk, roaming pronghorn and one of the world’s largest complexes of sage grouse breeding grounds. Here, ranchers graze cattle across a checkerboard of public and private land.

Tiny Wamsutter — a shell of a town from past energy booms and busts — is bustling again. The community anchors the Continental Divide-Creston Project, a natural-gas field that covers 1.1 million acres and could see up to 8,950 new wells. (A few thousand already operate on the site, but expanded drilling “would help meet the need, goals and objectives of the President’s National Energy Plan,” the BLM states.) The BLM estimates that construction for the project will take 15 years; the wells will have a life span of 30 to 40. In the meantime, the agency acknowledges, the project could harm water and air quality and threaten wildlife.

It’s the same scenario playing out across the West. But this time, BP is taking a new tack to manage environmental effects: It’s asking the Conservancy to step in at the earliest planning stage. The BLM is just beginning to draft the environmental impact statement that will determine when, where and how drilling occurs. BP wants Kiesecker’s modeling to be folded into that study, which will likely be issued in 2009 — before drilling takes place.

That means Kiesecker won’t just be presenting the company with maps identifying green zones for offset lands. This time, his maps will show yellow blobs to indicate “caution,” marking areas where natural-gas deposits overlap with irreplaceable habitats. “We’re not saying put a fence around them and keep everybody out. We’re saying proceed with caution,” Kiesecker says. “If we identify those places up front, then we can slate some for avoidance.”

He adds: “We’ve really identified where the flash points are.”

“This is the first time this has ever been done in an ongoing [environmental impact statement],” says BP’s Brown. “It’s definitely unique in that respect.”

Incorporating Kiesecker’s modeling into the planning stage, Brown explains, allows industry to know in advance what areas would be available for on-site and off-site mitigation. The Conservancy’s framework helps industry plan for and manage environmental risks. It also gives companies a chance to design projects in a way that increases their chances for approval by regulators and by the public.

Even so, BP’s primary concern is energy development, and according to Julie Falkner, a senior policy advisor for the Conservancy, the company and the Conservancy have acknowledged up front that there could be instances in which they differ on the approach to be taken, agreeing to disagree. The process will have to be transparent, independent and peer-reviewed to be credible, she says.

“Everybody is trying to figure out a solution, and it’s complicated and uncomfortable,” says Falkner. “But not doing something is going to be a worse position to be in.” Conservationists have no choice but to seek such solutions, uncomfortable or not, says Bruce McKenney, Conservancy senior economic advisor. “You’ve got projections for unprecedented growth and development in the mining sectors coming. What we’re doing that is different is we’re taking a more science-based approach.”

That science-based approach has many applications. The Conservancy recently launched a pilot project, in cooperation with the government of Colombia, to see if such an approach could offset the effects of a coal mine there. Several other projects in the intermountain West are under way, as well. And, in fact, the model instigated at Jonah can be refined and applied to many industrial-scale efforts — from oil and gas projects to housing developments.

With the twin realities of increased energy development and population growth, conservationists will need to look at environmental trade-offs on a much larger scale than before, says McKenney. “The alternative is to be more reactive and more ad hoc and perhaps always a step behind.”

That’s not what Joe Kiesecker has in mind. From now on, he aims to be a step ahead. 

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Nature picture credits: Photos © David Stubbs