Vol. 31, No. 1, #6. Scientific Planning Helps Wyoming's Wildlife Treasures.

• Author: Author: Andrea Erickson Quiroz and Kerry Brophy Lloyd

Wyoming Bar Journal

2008.

Vol. 31, No. 1, #6.

Scientific Planning Helps Wyoming's Wildlife Treasures

Wyoming Bar Journal Issue: February, 2008

Author: Andrea Erickson Quiroz and Kerry Brophy Lloyd Scientific Planning Helps Wyoming's Wildlife Treasures

As the nation's thirst for natural gas continues to drive energy development in Wyoming, concern mounts over the impacts to what many consider America's backcountry. Wyomingites question if damage to the landscape and the environment can truly be compensated. Scientists at The Nature Conservancy, an international nonprofit conservation organization, have set out to address this question in a very new way. For more than 50 years, the Conservancy has used scientific methods to locate and prioritize biologically-important lands and waters. In 2007, the organization's Wyoming program took a new twist on a longstanding conservation approach: planning for energy development sites in a way that maintains biodiversity.

The Nature Conservancy's first-of-its kind plan aimed to help industry and land managers think more proactively about conservation - ideally before drilling projects even begin. Whereas many environmental groups focus on litigation as a tool to influence energy development, the Conservancy wanted to take a more collaborative tact, one that promised to raise the conservation planning process to a higher scientific level.

The Project

The Conservancy's project focused on southwest Wyoming's Jonah Natural Gas Field, one of the largest energy development areas in the nation, with well pads and infrastructure covering more than 30,000 acres. The Jonah Natural Gas Field provides some of the richest wildlife habitat in the lower 48 states with mountains, sagebrush steppe and high desert terrain.

For several months, Conservancy scientists worked to better understand what has been lost on the Jonah Natural Gas Field. Their inventory included sage grouse winter and breeding habitat, pronghorn migration routes, occurrences of rare plant populations and more. They also looked at nearby landscapes that, if conserved, could continue to support habitat for these plants and animals.

Computers and Maps Churn Out Results

The Conservancy's complex scientific model required months of computer-based analysis. Scientists overlaid maps identifying wildlife and plant habitat with maps...