Oil and gas drilling can affect sagegrouse on their breeding grounds up to 4 miles away.(6)
When oil and gas wells are too close together, the effects on sage-grouse are worse. At densities of greater than 1 well pad per square mile (= 640-acre well spacing), sage-grouse abandon their breeding grounds at double the rate of undrilled areas. This cuts local sagegrouse populations down by up to half.(7)
Landscapes with oil and gas drilling have twice as many roads and power lines as other sagebrush habitat, which also contribute to sage-grouse declines.(8)
The scientists who reviewed the sagegrouse’s status in the recently-released sage-grouse monograph concluded “conventional densities of oil and gas wells likely far exceed the species’ threshold of tolerance.”(9)
Recent Drilling Guidance Does Not Solve the Problem
Until recently, the Bureau of Land Management only prevented oil and gas drilling within ¼ mile of sage-grouse leks, even though no science supported this as being an effective protection.
Many oil and gas fields have been drilled in the sage-grouse's range with wells as close together as 40-acre spacing (though recent research shows that placing wells closer than 640-acre spacing is not sustainable).
Late in 2009, the Bureau of Land Management, which oversees the majority of sage-grouse habitat and is in charge of the oil and gas program on public lands, issued new guidelines for managing oil and gas drilling in sage-grouse habitat in Montana(10) and Wyoming(11). While these are steps in the right direction, they will not be enough on their own to stop the downward trend for sage-grouse.
There are simply too many loopholes and exceptions.
For example:
- Montana's guidance is a menu of options - there are no guaranteed minimum protections. The areas that would be protected are still in the process of being identified.
- Wyoming's guidance mostly applies to areas identified as sage-grouse cores by the governor, but the core area mapping was political - areas with high oil and gas potential were excluded. Outside the core areas in habitat that has already been leased for drilling BLM still relies on the ¼ mile protections that are known to be inadequate.
- In both states, no core areas will be completely safe from drilling.
Sage-Grouse Need Landscape-Level Protections
The scientists who reviewed the sagegrouse's status in the recently-released sage-grouse monograph concluded, "The rapid pace and scale of energy development is a major issue because areas being developed include some of the largest remaining sagebrush landscapes with the highest densities of sage-grouse in North America"(12). Sage-grouse need real landscape-level protections from the impacts of oil and gas drilling. So little habitat remains that responsible drilling should stay out of the areas that sage-grouse need to survive.
Taking this step would also help protect the air, water, and landscapes that the rest of the West's inhabitants rely on too.
