Conservation easement protects pronghorn's path in Wyoming

Pronghorn antelope from Grand Teton National Park will always have access through the last unprotected bottleneck on their annual migration route thanks to a new easement, a conservation group said Monday.

The Conservation Fund said it has completed a deal to secure a conservation easement on 2,400 acres of the Carney Ranch in Sublette County. The ranch lies along the “path of the pronghorn,” which wends from the national park, up the Gros Ventre River, over the Kinky Creek Divide and into the Green River basin. Read the full story from the Jackson Hole Daily here.

Wyoming BLM: No public access planned at meetings

CHEYENNE, Wyo. (AP) - The Wyoming office of the U.S. Bureau of Land Management says it doesn't intend to provide public access to meetings that help establish land use plans, despite pressure from environmentalists and others to open up the meetings. Click here for the full story from Local News 8.

Gas companies in Colorado seek legal rights for discharged water

It may be brackish and thousands of feet underground, but in Colorado, every drop of water counts. That's why gas companies are filing applications for rights to water that comes out of their wells during the process of producing natural gas.

“The oil and gas industry is only seeking the water rights associated with oil and gas production," said Bruce Gantner, a ConocoPhillips environmental consultant who is handling comments about the company's application.

But some observers of the process called it a “water grab" and question the legal framework for the gas companies' claims. Read the full story from the Durango Herald here.

Wyoming forest proposes to suspend energy work on 44K acres

Bridger-Teton National Forest is proposing prohibiting energy development on more than 44,000 acres in the Wyoming Range.

Under the forest’s proposal, “the leases under suspension would be canceled and the leases under protest not awarded,” according to a draft supplemental environmental impact statement released Thursday. “There would be no opportunity for exploration and or development in the areas covered by the 44,720 acres.”

Energy development in the area might be inappropriate because of air quality and wildlife impacts, according to the document. Read the article from the Jackson Hole Daily here .

Colorado group urges protection of Hermosa Creek watershed

The Hermosa Creek watershed - 155,000 acres stretching from the north Animas Valley to just beyond Purgatory - deserves protection because of its sterling water quality and corresponding natural resources, including diverse flora and fauna and recreation, the River Protection Workgroup says.

A report outlining protective measures will be available to the public Feb. 8. Read the full story from the Durango Herald here.

Wyoming residents protest seismic testing in Sweetwater County

A coalition seeking to protect scenic Little Mountain from full-scale oil and gas development is opposing a two-dimensional seismic study proposed for next fall in the area.

Greater Little Mountain Coalition officials said last week that the proposed 2D seismic project by an independent Colorado energy company would disturb a unique, high-desert area on the mountain that supports native Colorado River cutthroat trout.

Conservationists, laborers, sportsmen and church organizations banded together three years ago amid concerns about possible full-scale oil and gas development on Little Mountain, an area prized by locals for its scenic, recreational and wildlife values. Read the rest of the story from the Casper Star-Tribune.

Colorado billion-dollar pipeline plan concerns Wyoming, Utah

In an audacious test of the Western axiom that water flows toward money, Fort Collins, Colo., entrepreneur Aaron Million wants to tap the Green River in Wyoming and send it to faucets in neighborhoods that don't yet exist.

His plan worries Utah and Wyoming officials, who don't dispute that Colorado has a legal right to the water under the Colorado River Compact. They never expected their neighbor to take its share from a river that they consider money in their water banks, but rather thought the diversion would come from the Colorado River to the south.  Read the full story from the Salt Lake Tribune.

Opinion: Good news abounds on Montana's Rocky Mountain Front

The holiday season has been extended for Montanans who love wildlife and great scenery.
After two significant land transactions that enlarged and preserved significant wild landscapes along the Rocky Mountain Front and in a legendary drainage west of Missoula, two more developments in the past couple of weeks have accomplished more of the same type of thing, this time just below the Upper Missouri Breaks National Monument and, again, on the Front. Read about these new public lands at the Great Falls Tribune.

Feds recommend approval of 2 Rockies gas lines

BILLINGS, Mont. -- Federal regulators are recommending approval of two natural gas pipelines that could sharply increase fuel shipments from the Rockies to population centers in the Midwest and on the West Coast. Click here for the full story from Forbes magazine

Coal company says Montana's minimum bid for state leases too high

The head of the company that owns more than half the coal in southeastern Montana's Otter Creek Valley said this week he'll be surprised if anyone bids on state-owned coal there, because the Land Board probably set the minimum price too high.

Great Northern owns 730 million tons of coal in the Otter Creek Valley, about 150 miles east of Billings, and its coal is interspersed with 572 million tons of coal owned by the state.

On Dec. 21, the state Land Board decided to put the state coal up for bid to potential developers and set the minimum bonus bid at 25 cents a ton, or $143 million.  Read the full story from The Missoulian.