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Defenders Magazine
Defenders in Action: Home, Home on the Rig?
Called one of the “last best places,” Montana’s Rocky Mountain Front is considered to be in the top 1 percent of wildlife habitat in the United States. The front stretches along the eastern edge of the Rockies for more than 100 miles from Glacier National Park to Helena, and is home to wolves, grizzly bears, lynx, bald eagles, bighorn sheep, mountain goats, elk and many other species.
But the rig may soon replace the range here, as a Canadian company is proposing to drill oil and gas wells in prime grizzly habitat. The company, Startech Energy, owns leases that predate a 1997 moratorium on oil and gas drilling on the front’s forest land established by Gloria Flora, then supervisor of the area’s national forests. The Bureau of Land Management (BLM), under the direction of the White House, will spend $1.2 million during the next 18 months studying the proposed leases and their possible effects.
If approved, the drilling would occur in the Blindhorse area, designated as an “outstanding natural area” by the BLM, and located near the well-known Bob Marshall Wilderness. Critics of the plan believe this unique area should remain off-limits to drilling. They point out that the area only has enough natural gas to satisfy two days of consumption in the United States, and that the energy company itself puts the odds against finding any recoverable gas there at about 3-to-1.
“This proposal is more about getting a foothold in one of the most ecologically and culturally significant ecosystems in the United States,” says Flora, who is now a Defenders board member. “They believe if they can get in here, they can get in anywhere.”
In May, Senator Max Baucus (D-Montana) asked the BLM to consider buying out or swapping the leases for others in less sensitive areas. As of press time, the BLM has not responded to Baucus’ request.
