All around the Upper Green River Valley, special places are under increasing development pressure as natural gas prices spike to historic highs and politicians relax protective measures in the name of energy security. Here are some of the Valley's important landscapes that are most at risk.

The Mesa

A major issue here is winter drilling. The Pinedale Mesa, which covers part of lucrative gas field known as the Pinedale Anticline, is crucial winter range for thousands of migratory mule deer and pronghorn. BLM now seeks a major escalation of drilling activity, despite a documented 46 percent decline in the number of mule deer that winter here.

Because of industry's potential to displace big game and sage grouse, BLM is supposed to enforce seasonal drilling closures on this vital and fragile habitat. In recent years, however, the agency has routinely granted exemptions and now is considering doing away with them altogether under the escalation proposal.

Now that winter drilling may become the norm on the Mesa, it is crucial that industry make major concessions to offset the potential harm of disturbing wildlife during their most vulnerable time of year. The Coalition insists Anticline gas plays be drilled directionally as much as technologically possible, wasted liquids transported by pipeline rather than trucks, production wells accessed via telemetry, thorough monitoring of air-quality and wildlife impacts, and other protective measures.

Bridger-Teton National Forest’s Wyoming Range

One of Wyoming’s unsung natural gems, the Wyoming Range is a place for locals to explore, hunt and fish. Despite these mountains’ supreme natural and recreational values, the Forest Service is attempting to lease 44,600 acres of the range’s eastern slope. The decision, which targets a wildlife-filled area west of Merna, puts at risk world-class scenery, recreation, wildlife habitat and streams harboring remnant populations of native trout. Sportsmen and outfitter groups are protesting these proposed leases, which have been sold but not issued pending decisions from administrative judges. More than 150,000 acres of the Wyoming Range are already under lease for oil and gas development. Why add to this inventory of undeveloped leases? These proposed sales would also encourage drilling dormant leases on the north end of the range in Teton County. Already wildcat wells have been proposed in the upper Hoback and one has been drilled in Fish Creek. To learn more, go to our Citizens Protecting the Wyoming Range.

The Wind River Front

Some parts of the Upper Green, because of their scenic value and importance to wildlife, should remain off-limits to the drillers. Industry has its eyes set on several areas on the eastern fringe of the Valley that ought to be withdrawn from leasing. Some leases, such as the recently suspended Farleigh holdings in the New Fork Potholes, ought to be retired so that they will never be developed. These two leases were on the verge of meeting their 10-year expirations when BLM granted a suspension, which gives the company fresh time to develop them. This move, seen as an abuse of BLM’s suspension rules because Farleigh had done nothing to prove up the leases until the last minute, triggered protests from neighboring property owners and Gov. Freudenthal.

The Potholes are located in a 220,000-acre swath of the Wind River and Gros Ventre foothills that was temporary put off-limits to new leasing in 2000. The Coalition seeks to make that leasing moratorium permanent and to retire pre-existing leases there. In 2002, the BLM auctioned a lease near Trappers Point, a sensitive wildlife migration bottleneck west of Pinedale. The lease was withdrawn after state wildlife officials complained, but the incident shows how no corner of the Valley is truly safe from development.