The 2013 CAPE Awards Celebrating Milestones in Conservation for our Public Lands
In many ways, 2013 was a year of great beginnings. From responsible renewable energy planning in the California Desert to conserving the iconic but imperiled greater sage-grouse to inventorying millions of acres of western lands for wilderness characteristics, the Bureau of Land Management is getting the ball rolling on some inspiring and important public lands initiatives. But the bulk of the work is still to come, and we hope to have an overflowing CAPE Awards in 2014. Until then, we have a smaller list this year but these eight achievements are certainly noteworthy, made possible by the tireless and heroic efforts of BLM staff, invested citizens, and our amazing partner groups. So without further ado, The Wilderness Societys BLM Action Center is proud to present the 2013 CAPE Awards recognizing this years greatest moments for the spectacular landscapes managed by the BLM. The Comparative Analysis of Particular Excellence (CAPE) rating system, inspired by the superhero-like character of the BLM Action Center team (able to leap tall stacks of RMPs in a single bound!), ranges from one CAPE on the low end (worth a pat on the back) to five CAPEs on the high end (HUGE PROGRESS!!! WAY TO GO!!!).
1. Northwest Colorado Field Offices Set the Bar for Inventorying Lands with Wilderness Characteristics (4 CAPEs)
Recipient: Kent Walter, White River Field Office Manager; Wendy Reynolds, Little Snake Field Office Manager
This year, the White River and Little Snake Field Offices released updated lands with wilderness characteristics inventories which provide shining examples to other field offices throughout the country on how wilderness inventories should be conducted and how their determinations should be documented and presented to the public. In 2012, the White River Field Office released a preliminary inventory of lands with wilderness characteristics finding 30 individual units totaling 252,000 acres. These areas were identified through a desktop inventory, using GIS analysis, aerial imagery and other information available to BLM. In response to this initial inventory, conservation groups, including The Wilderness Society, set out to conduct a separate inventory of the field office, following the very protocols and criteria laid out in
revised BLM Manual 6310 (Conducting Wilderness Inventories on BLM Lands). The citizen-led inventory, submitted as part of our comments on the BLM White River Field Offices RMP Amendment, confirmed many conclusions of the BLMs initial efforts; however, it also identified numerous significant gaps in the BLMs preliminary inventory, including the misidentification of boundary roads and the arbitrary exclusion of qualifying acreage. This information was compiled into a report which proposed that 38 units totaling 322,000 acres met the criteria for lands with wilderness characteristics. In a response to this citizens inventory, and as an effort to improve the quality of BLMs own inventory and to better meet current BLM policies, the White River Field Office conducted detailed field inventories of the entire field office in 2012 and 2013. This extensive effort to detail existing on-the-ground conditions included informative photographs, detailed maps, and objective assessments of the wilderness characteristics of all the potential lands with wilderness characteristics in the field office. The result of this closer look was a much-improved inventory which found wilderness characteristics in 35 units comprising around 304,000 acres. The Little Snake Field Office also released updated lands with wilderness characteristics information in 2013. While there is still significant inventory work to be done in the LSFO, the manner and level of detail with which the completed lands with wilderness characteristics inventory was presented to the public on the field offices LWC webpage (http://www.blm.gov/co/st/en/fo/lsfo/plans/lwc.html) goes above and beyond what has been released elsewhere in the state and provides a framework for how this information should be presented in all BLM field offices. The LSFOs webpage includes detailed inventory reports for over 50 potential LWC units. Each of these reports include a detailed map, substantial photographic documentation, relevant route analysis forms, and thoughtful and objective narrative describing and defending the determinations made by BLM on each units boundaries as well as the presence or absence of wilderness characteristics located therein. Lands with wilderness characteristics inventories contain large amounts of information and data, yet the Little Snake Field Office has shown that this information can be simply and thoroughly presented to the public once it is collected.
Looking into the Willow Creek WSA Additions LWC Soren Jespersen
The White River and Little Snake Field Offices have certainly earned their CAPEs for their efforts to accurately identify and document the existing lands with wilderness characteristics within those field offices. These field offices have created an example for other field offices in the state on how to conduct detailed and objective lands with wilderness characteristics inventories and how to effectively present the documentation for these decisions to the public. However, the BLM now has the responsibility to ensure that these lands are protected and a balance is crafted between undeveloped lands open to multiple uses and the single-use areas of intensive oil and gas development.
2. BLM Takes a Stand for Conservation in the Ironwood Forest National Monument (4 CAPEs)
Recipient: Claire Crow, Monument Manager
In March, BLM signed the Approved Resource Management Plan/Record of Decision for the Ironwood Forest National Monument, a unit of the BLMs National Landscape Conservation System. Many of the plans decisions provide the type of analysis and decision-making that prioritizes conservation over other multiple uses, in line with the mission and policies for the National Landscape Conservation System. For example, the plan designated roads for access into the Monument but left a majority of the area as non-motorized to facilitate conservation and provide access to quiet use recreation opportunities. In addition, due to the ongoing problem of vandalism to Monument resources from recreational target shooting in the Monument, BLM undertook a scientific analysis of the use to inform its management options. In the end, despite heavy political pressure, BLM stood by its scientific analysis and findings leading the agency to prohibit recreational target shooting within the Monument, while still permitting hunting with firearms in the area. It is this type of tough decision-making in favor of conservation that sets the BLM on the path towards a stronger, more robust system of Conservation Lands as originally envisioned when the National Landscape Conservation System was established. Since the Ironwood Forest plan has been released, we have already seen improvements in conservation efforts on-the-ground. Unfortunately, vandalism from recreational target shooting remains a major issue in another nearby BLM Monument, the Sonoran Desert National Monument, where BLM did a similar evaluation and came to similar conclusions as Ironwood Forest, but instead buckled to political pressure and kept the status quo management regime for this use. We are currently working to overturn that arbitrary decision in the Sonoran Desert National Monument and get the Monument back on track.
3. Arizona BLM Finalizes Statewide Plan for Smart Solar and Wind Development (4 CAPEs)
Recipient: Kathy Pedrick, BLM Arizona State Office
In January the Arizona BLM published the Record of Decision for the Restoration Design Energy Project (RDEP), a forward-thinking planning initiative that will help to guide and incentivize low-conflict renewable energy development in Arizona. RDEP includes a statewide identification and prioritization of previously disturbed and low-conflict lands appropriate for renewable energy development. This proactive approach will help minimize negative impacts to sensitive wildlands and wildlife habitat and will avoid and reduce conflicts between companies, government agencies and conservationists that can result in costly project delays. Developed in close coordination with the broader Solar Programmatic Environmental Impact Statement (Solar PEIS) which was finalized in October 2012, RDEP provides a more detailed look at potential development areas in Arizona. By analyzing potential low-conflict development areas across public, private and state lands, BLM has effectively created a menu of good options from which developers can choose from. In addition to screening out sensitive wildlands and wildlife habitat such as BLM-identified Lands with Wilderness Characteristics, RDEP also provides incentives to developers who site their projects in the low-conflict Renewable Energy Development Areas (REDAs) identified through the process. BLM has already seen some success in implementing RDEP the Maricopa Solar Park, proposed for a REDA southeast of Phoenix, is now moving through the permitting process. Many of the requirements of the Variance Process set out by the Solar PEIS for applications outside of Solar Energy Zones were met because the application is in a REDA, allowing it to move efficiently through the Variance Process. We look forward to working with BLM as it processes the Maricopa Solar Park application and we hope to see more applications guided to low-conflict REDAs.
4. Regional Mitigation Guidance Provides a Landscape Approach to Offsetting Impacts (3 CAPEs)
Recipients: Jim Perry, Fluid Minerals Division; Matt Preston, NLCS Division
Historically, BLM has relied on project proponents to propose compensatory or offsite mitigation. However, where damage to other public lands values and resources cannot be avoided or sufficiently
minimized, such as when large-scale energy projects will occupy public land for decades, regional compensatory mitigation is an important tool. In June of this year, BLM issued an interim regional mitigation manual, which is effective immediately but can be refined based on comments. The guidance issues a change in approach where BLM formally states that it can condition approval of uses on sufficient off-site mitigation and provides detailed standards for designing appropriate mitigation. BLM will implement mitigation through overarching regional mitigation strategies (which will be aimed at a landscape level vision), regional mitigation planning (to incorporate into plans), and mitigation implementation (where requirements are incorporated into project approvals). By looking at a landscape approach to design effective mitigation and ensure mitigation benefits other resources, including lasting as long as those other resources are affected, BLM can develop a more strategic and successful approach to incorporating compensatory mitigation into land management. Secretary of the Interior Jewell just issued Secretarial Order 3330 on Improving Mitigation Policies and Practices of the Department of the Interior and we look forward to BLM supporting her goals for balancing energy and conservation by finalizing and implementing this manual.
5. Master Leasing Plans Officially Incorporated into Planning Handbook (3 CAPEs)
Recipient: Minerals and Realty Management Office
One of the more progressive concepts put forth in the Obama administrations 2010 oil and gas leasing reforms is a new Bureau of Land Management planning tool called Master Leasing Plans (MLPs). MLPs provide a mechanism for BLM to develop a detailed plan for leasing and development across a landscape where there are conflicts with other resources such as recreation, lands with wilderness characteristics or wildlife values. These plans are developed through public input processes and establish a smart from the start approach to oil and gas development on public lands. While we applauded the MLP concept when it was introduced, implementation has been inconsistent across BLM field offices and completely lacking in some places. Thats why we were glad to see BLM issue more specific guidance with Instruction Memorandum 2013-101 and incorporate it into the agencys Planning for Fluid Mineral Resources Handbook (H-1624-1) as Chapter V. The guidance provides clear direction on the purpose for MLPs, stating that MLPs provide a framework and vision for how oil and gas development will proceed within a specific area. The guidance also establishes resource conditions objectives and resource protection measures as required elements of MLPs. We are excited to see BLM incorporate Master Leasing Plans into the agencys Planning Handbook, making a strong statement that this important tool is here to stay. Well continue encouraging BLM to implement the new guidance in the many ongoing planning processes throughout the west with large oil
and gas components. The Beaver Rim MLP in the Lander Resource Management Plan and the Carter MLP in the Miles City Resource Management Plan are two examples where BLM is already moving forward with this framework. We hope to see RMPs such as Grand Junction, White River and Rock Springs follow suit.
6. BLM Completes Milestone on Road to Fixing West-Wide Energy Corridors (2 CAPEs)
Recipient: Lucas Lucero and Joshua Hanson, BLM D.C. Office
Like guiding wind and solar projects to low-conflict areas, finding the right places for transmission lines is a common sense approach. BLM completed an important milestone on that path in July by publishing plans and agreements defining how BLM, Forest Service and the Department of Energy will re-evaluate the West-wide Energy Corridors (corridors). This type of landscape-level approach was one of the drivers for the original network of 6,000 miles of corridors for pipelines and power lines across the west. Unfortunately, the original corridors designated by the Bush administration in 2009 did not meet these goals. They included areas inappropriate for development, such as the Sevilleta National Wildlife Refuge in New Mexico and the entrance to Arches National Park in Moab, Utah. The 2009 corridors also failed to create pathways to carry renewable energy from projects to cities that need it most. Thanks to the settlement agreement we reached with the agencies on our lawsuit in July 2012, there is now an opportunity to fix the corridors and create a truly useful system. The Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) published this July dictates how the agencies will complete the first regional re-evaluation of the corridors. The companion Work Plan for Corridor Study (Work Plan) will guide the agencies evaluation of how the corridors are being used (or not used) and what improvements are needed to make them effective.
Antelope in the Sevilleta National Wildlife Refuge US Fish and Wildlife Service
It is key that BLM continues to meet its commitments under the settlement agreement, including developing recommended corridor improvements through the first regional review by July 2014. We will be continuing our efforts to help establish a system of corridors that protect wildlands and advance renewables as the agencies implement the MOU and Work Plan.
7. Rapid Ecoregional Assessments Aim to Improve Landscape-Level Analysis (2 CAPEs)
Recipient: Kit Muller, Renewable Resources and Planning Division
Over the past year, BLM has publicly released 4 Rapid Ecoregional Assessments (REAs) covering a significant portion of lands managed by the agency including the Colorado Plateau, Sonoran Desert, Mojave Basin and Range, and Central Basin and Range. This is the first time that BLM has done this type of landscape-level analysis as well as the first time BLM has taken a look at climate change at this level. The REAs will help inform future planning and projects by showing varying levels of intactness throughout each ecoregion and the potential impacts of change agents, such as development, invasive species, wildfire and climate change. In February, BLM issued guidance on the utilization of regional assessments in general, including the REAs. This guidance included suggestions for using this data in planning and management decisions as well as for learning how to improve the REAs themselves, but did not provide strong direction for incorporating REAs into land use planning. We look forward to seeing the other 10 REAs scheduled to be released over the next year. We will be working with BLM and the data to help make land use planning and management decisions science-based, cross-jurisdictional, and responsive to climate change as well as to identify areas that are appropriate for protective management and restoration. The REAs provide a look at the landscape that BLM has never examined before. The key to the effectiveness of the REAs will be transforming the science into real and lasting actions on the ground to conserve and restore those deserving lands in need of protection as well as finding appropriate areas for development.
8. BLM Seizes Opportunity to Designate National Conservation Lands Through the Desert Renewable Energy Conservation Plan (1 CAPE)
Recipient: Jim Kenna, BLM California State Director
The Bureau of Land Management has begun a new planning process that will identify and designate certain lands in the 25-million acre California Desert Conservation Area (CDCA) to be added to the National Conservation Lands, while also determining other areas for conservation, renewable energy development, and other uses. The Omnibus Public Land Management Act of 2009 made the National Conservation Lands a permanent system of public lands conservation, and defined the lands that would be included in the system, which includes public land within the California Desert Conservation Area administered by the Bureau of Land Management for conservation purposes leaving it up to the BLM to decide which lands in the CDCA would be identified as administered for conservation purposes. The BLM is using a concurrent, overlapping planning process to identify the National Conservation Lands in the CDCA. BLM will use the opportunity of the Desert Renewable Energy Conservation Plan (DRECP) to receive public comments and proposals for the addition of these areas to our National Conservation Lands, and to consider those designations in the broader context of planning for renewable energy development. BLM has already indicated that lands identified as California Desert National Conservation Lands must be nationally significant and possess outstanding conservation values, such as lands containing prehistoric or historic sites, areas with a high degree of intactness or that can be restored to that level, and lands that are valuable for scientific research, education and discovery. Many such lands in the California desert also contain high scenic and Silurian Valley recreational values. John Dittli The BLM has a once in a lifetime opportunity to administratively designate new National Conservation Lands and ensure those lands are managed to conserve their outstanding values. We hope to see BLM move forward with a plan for the DRECP that designates the maximum amount of Conservation Lands and manages them in a way that conforms to BLMs policy guidance for the National Conservation Lands, including Secretarial Order 3308, the 15-Year Strategy for the Conservation Lands, and BLM Manual 6100, and protects them from all energy development and harmful off-road vehicle use.
Honorable Mention
These projects are headed in the right direction, but there is still much work to be done! We hope to see these honorable mentions earn some CAPEs in 2014. BLM Defers Oil and Gas Leasing In Sensitive Landscapes Across the West, But Threats Remain and Landscape-Level Planning is Needed In 2013, the industry continued its push to lease sensitive landscapes in the West for oil and gas development, including in the following instances: In Colorado, the industry nominated over 5,000 acres that border an entrance road to Dinosaur National Monument. Those lands also contain wilderness values and provide an important scenic backdrop to national monument visitors. In New Mexico, the industry tried to acquire leases on over 18,000 acres of land surrounding Chaco Culture National Historical Park. Drilling rigs could have risen within a quarter-mile of the national parks boundaries, and a maze of wells, roads and pipelines could have permanently transformed the landscape surrounding Chaco Canyon, which contains scores of prehistoric roads, ancient villages and other significant cultural resources. In Utah, over objections from key members of the outdoor recreation industry, the oil and gas industry attempted to lease approximately 80,000 acres of lands in the San Rafael Swell. Historic and cultural resources abound in the Swell, which is also valued by many for its scenery, recreation opportunities and wilderness characteristics. And, in Wyoming, the industry attempted to lease several thousand acres of wilderness-quality lands surrounding the Adobe Town WSA. Those lands contain a wealth of hunting, wildlife and recreation resources, and although they have been leased in the past, many of the leases are now expiring.
In all four instances, the BLM made the right choice and deferred the leases. Doing so was fully consistent with the BLMs 2010 oil and gas leasing reforms, which recognizes that oil and gas leasing is not always consistent with protection of other important resources and values, including units of the National Park System and other important areas. However, in spite of the deferrals, the lands in question remain available for leasing, and the industry could very well renew its effort to obtain leases in the near future. Thus, the BLM now has the opportunity to reevaluate its management for all four areas and develop a more thoughtful, landscape-level approach to oil and gas activity. Such an approach would allow the BLM to avoid future conflicts over leasing, while providing enhanced protection for the significant wilderness, recreation, wildlife and cultural values that exist in and near Dinosaur National Monument, Chaco Canyon, San Rafael Swell and Adobe Town.
Draft Greater Sage-Grouse Conservation Plans Evaluate a Suite of Measures to Protect the Species This fall BLM began rolling out draft regional plans for conserving greater sage-grouse across millions of acres of western public lands. The agency is hoping that it can get strong enough plans in place to stave off a listing under the Endangered Species Act, a decision which the US Fish and Wildlife Service will make in 2015. The Service has already declared greater sage-grouse a candidate species for listing based on the severe decline in sage-grouse populations across the American west in recent decades. The once-ubiquitous sagebrush sea that provides habitat for sage-grouse (as well as big game and a host of other species) has been fragmented and destroyed by energy development, including oil and gas, wind and transmission, and other uses of our western lands. BLM has released draft plans for nearly every state that encompasses greater sage-grouse habitat for public comment. The draft plans evaluate a range of conservation measures, some of which would provide strong protection for the species, but ultimately fail to propose management actions that would put meaningful standards in place to ensure the birds survival. In fact, the US Fish and Wildlife Service wrote in comments on BLMs plan for Colorado that the draft plan falls short of providing necessary protection to avoid the need for a listing. To adequately conserve greater sage-grouse across its range, BLM must specifically designate areas for sage-grouse protection, such as areas of critical environmental concern, and place those areas off-limits to development. BLM should analyze benefits to sage-grouse from protecting wilderness-quality lands and designate those areas for sage grouse conservation where it would benefit the species. Some of the most important sage-grouse habitat in the West exists in unprotected wilderness-quality lands. In the Little Snake Field Office alone, nearly 300,000 acres of federally recognized primary habitat is encompassed in potential lands with wilderness characteristics identified by the BLM. In addition to designating sage-grouse conservation areas, BLM must also mitigate habitat loss and species displacement in all sage-grouse habitat, and actively manage destructive activities across the species range.
Pronghorn mingle with sage-grouse in Northwest Colorado Sasha Nelson
10
McCoy Solar Project Mitigation Plan Addresses Impacts to Lands with Wilderness Characteristics The McCoy Solar Project was approved to be constructed on approximately 4,600 acres of public lands in the California Desert Conservation Area. The BLMs environmental impact statement acknowledged that the project would damage approximately 1,089 acres that the agency had identified as having wilderness characteristics and proposed a general approach to mitigation. The record of decision incorporated more specific requirements for removal and restoration of unauthorized vehicle routes, conversion of routes into a hiking trail, and installation of vehicle barriers and signing along wilderness boundaries in the nearby Big Maria Mountains Wilderness Area, Palen-McCoy Wilderness Area or other designated wilderness areas near the project, and set a timeline for completion. Under the governing Solar Programmatic EIS (PEIS), these lands were not being managed to protect their wilderness characteristics, but the PEIS did define a suite of potential mitigation measures for impacts to lands with wilderness characteristics, including acquisition, restoration, management of adjacent lands, and contribution to a mitigation bank. Our preference is avoiding damage to lands with wilderness characteristics, but where impacts cannot be avoided, we want to see BLM requiring mitigation. The plan incorporated in the McCoy Solar Project record of decision takes the right approach and requires meaningful mitigation. BLM Evaluates Designating Otero Mesa ACEC in Draft Tri-County Plan We have been working diligently for nearly a decade to protect southern New Mexicos wild desert grassland, Otero Mesa. Encompassing more than a million acres, Otero Mesa contains one of the largest desert grasslands remaining in North America as well as a half million acres of potential wilderness. The grassland is ecologically significant as habitat for more than a thousand native wildlife species and for its vast freshwater resources, is home to a rich archaeological and historical record, and is treasured by hunters and other backcountry recreationists. But Otero Mesa is under constant threat from oil and gas drilling, mining and other uses that could forever destroy the grasslands many
Otero Mesa Stephen Capra
11
irreplaceable values. In addition to advocating for permanent protection for the grassland, we proposed the BLM designate an Area of Critical Environmental Concern as part of the ongoing Tri-County Resource Management Plan. This spring, the Las Cruces District released a draft Tri-County RMP which would designate an Otero Mesa Grasslands ACEC in two alternatives, including the preferred alternative. We were elated to see BLM recognize the special values of Otero Mesa and propose protective management for those values. However, the ACEC which would be designated under the preferred alternative is much smaller than the conservation alternative and than we originally proposed, and drops important protective management measures such as closure to new transmission lines and other rights-of-way and recommended mineral withdrawal. Furthermore, the draft RMP did not address oil and gas management and therefore the ACEC would not be closed to oil and gas leasing under any alternative in the draft RMP. We pushed BLM to go back to the drawing board on this one, and in December the agency announced a supplement to the draft RMP will be prepared to address oil and gas management and lands with wilderness characteristics. Were glad BLM is moving forward with a supplement, and we also hope BLM will ultimately adopt an ACEC for Otero Mesa that encompasses the full landscape so as to protect all of the grasslands outstanding values and puts robust management in place including closures to oil and gas leasing, renewable energy development and transmission, and recommended mineral withdrawal.
12
