New Elk Study Planned for Fortification Creek Herd! 

BLM, others launch elk study (Casper Star Tribune, 3.20.08)
Study monitors elk behavior (Casper Star Tribune, 4.7.08)

Fortification Creek Elk Herd is Still in Danger

Article courtesy of Wyoming Wildlife Federation Staff and the Pronghorn Newsletter

Controversy is heating up in the heart of Wyoming’s Powder River Basin, as coalbed methane (CBM) development extends further into the Basin’s wildest country, and into the home of a trophy elk herd.

The Fortification Creek area in northeast Wyoming lies along the Campbell/Johnson county border in a region known as the Powder River Breaks. It is rugged country, characterized by “knife-edge” ridges and deep draws – the result of eons of water action on highly erosive soils. This area represents the wildest country remaining in the Powder River Basin, and contains a Wilderness Study area, a proposed Area of Critical Environmental Concern, and a currently thriving herd of elk reintroduced to the area in the 1950s.

The rugged topography, juniper-choked draws, and isolated nature of the area have suited the elk herd well, providing security cover in otherwise open country in their yearlong range of approximately 122,000 acres. The Fortification Creek herd is known for producing trophy class bulls, and an “any elk” license in this area remains one of the state’s most highly sought. In the 2007 draw, a Fortification license ranked as the toughest resident draw statewide, with only a 4.07% success rate among resident applicants.

CBM development, already blanketing the surrounding region, is now moving into the Fortification herd’s range from literally all directions. Several companies hold leases within the herd’s yearlong range and crucial winter range and calving grounds, and they are eager to develop those leases.

In May 2006, the BLM initiated a call for public comment regarding proposed CBM development in the Fortification Creek area, recognizing its many unique values including the elk herd. The Wyoming Wildlife Federation (WWF), U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Wyoming Game and Fish Department, and others called for an Environmental Impact Statement to adequately investigate and address the cumulative impacts of development. The WWF argued that the BLM’s current method of approving companies’ Plans of Development (POD’s) on a one-by-one basis would not take into account the full effect of this development.

Despite this input, the BLM has chosen to continue approving PODs in a piecemeal fashion, approving 92 wells to date in five separate PODs impinging upon the elk’s yearlong range. Although the companies had requested permission to drill many more wells inside yearlong range, the BLM, to its credit, did not approve wells within that boundary. The BLM has instead promised to conduct a “Cumulative Effects Analysis” before permitting the hundreds of wells requested inside the Fortification herd’s range, acknowledging that “cumulative effects to the Fortification Creek herd within the designated ranges are currently unknown”.

Unfortunately, the BLM’s approval of wells outside and up to the identified yearlong range ignores research from radio-collared Fortification elk showing that effective loss of habitat extends well beyond the physical disturbance and activity associated with gas development – up to 1.7 miles. Thus, BLM’s approval of wells right up to the elk range boundary and their assertion that this development “will not affect the herd” simply doesn’t wash. The Wyoming Wildlife Federation has joined other concerned groups in appealing the BLM’s approval of these POD’s. The appeals are currently under consideration by the Interior Board of Land Appeals.

The WWF remains convinced that both currently approved and future development in the Fortification area must be analyzed thoroughly – through an Environmental Impact Statement that takes into account the cumulative effects of all proposed CBM development, explores options for phased, coordinated development (absent under the current piecemeal approach), and allows for full public input.

The Fortification Creek elk herd is already effectively encircled by development, so elk displacement is not a viable option. As development impinges further into their range and effective habitat shrinks, the likely result will be over-use of available habitat, particularly the ‘safe haven’ provided by the Wilderness Study Area at the area’s core - compounding habitat degradation with the inevitable shrinking of the herd.

We are working, through these appeals and through several other channels, to assure that development occurs in a manner that both respects and protects the integrity of this elk herd and this area.

More Information

BLM Requests Public Comments on Fortification Creek Management Plan Amendment

BLM Report on Coalbed Natural Gas Effects on the Fortification Creek Area Elk Herd

Summary of Report

Map of Fortification Creek (BLM)

Map of Fortification Creek Elk Locations and Existing Wells (BLM)

Expert Independent Evaluation of Impacts to the Fortification Elk Herd by Biologist A. William Aldredge