American Oil and Gas Reporter - September 2016 - 100

ConventionCoverage: Petroleum Association of Wyoming

Wyoming, Washington Eye
Sage Grouse Strategy
By Dan Holder
CASPER, WY.-Wyoming has implemented significant provisions to protect
its population of greater sage grouse, but
state officials expressed concerns at the
Petroleum Association of Wyoming's annual convention and trade show that the
federal conservation program could disrupt
local efforts.
Wyoming Governor Matthew Mead
issued Executive Order 2015-4 on July
29, 2015. It provides specific instructions
to protect the state's sage grouse population
by designating more than 15 million acres
as core population areas. Mead's proclamation followed proposed federal guidance
issued by the Bureau of Land Management
and U.S. Forest Service that covers sage
grouse protective measures for 10 Western
states. The federal strategy seeks to prevent
development on 10 million acres designated
as key habitat areas. Another 30 million
acres face highly restrictive requirements.
According to Mead's executive order,
Wyoming's core area protection program
proactively maintains and enhances the
sage grouse population using a strategy
based on identifying important habitat areas, following avoidance practices and
protecting the best remaining habitat, minimizing impacts where they cannot be
avoided, and compensating for any unavoidable impacts. Wyoming is working
with the two federal agencies to develop
resource management plans that incorporate
the state strategy, the governor said.
Speaking about the state's efforts at
PAW's annual meeting, held Aug. 16-17
at the Parkway Plaza Hotel in Casper,
were Jerimiah Rieman, Wyoming natural
resource policy director, and Bob Budd,
executive director of the Wyoming Wildlife
and Natural Resource Trust. Federal representatives in the sage grouse discussion
were Mary Jo Rugwell, Wyoming state
director for the Bureau of Land Management, and Tyler Abbott, field supervisor
for the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service.

and winter concentration protection. He
went on to point out that compensatory
mitigation was one of several conservation
mechanisms featured in both state and
federal sage grouse plans. BLM and USFWS documents require compensatory
mitigation projects if initial mitigation
efforts still yield habitat loss.
"The governor's executive order sets
the stage for the state to develop and finalize a framework, which we intend to
use as leverage with federal agencies to
ensure that it becomes the framework for
compensatory mitigation in Wyoming,"
he described.
Wyoming has been in discussions with
federal agencies about the relationship
of compensatory mitigation to resource
management plans, including state efforts
to make the program consistent with
Wyoming's core area strategy, he said.
According to the state, if an operator
complies with Mead's executive order,
no additional mitigation should be required, Rieman stated.
"If you do exceed or violate a standard
in the executive order, then compensatory
mitigation could be a component of any
required mitigation," he laid out. "Net
conservation gain would be a component,
again consistent with the Wyoming frame-

Compensatory Mitigation
Rieman said future state conservation
efforts would center on improving noise
100 THE AMERICAN OIL & GAS REPORTER

Jerimiah Rieman, Wyoming natural resource policy director, tells the Petroleum
Association of Wyoming that both state
and federal sage grouse plans rely on
compensatory mitigation as one of several conservation mechanisms.

work. We are using this language to push
back on some of these efforts to require
you to mitigate for any impact you have
on the landscape, regardless whether you
complied with the executive order."
Rieman suggested that, until recently,
Wyoming was losing the compensatory
mitigation battle, but language issued by
federal agencies lately, including guidance
issued to BLM, seemed to indicate some
positive movement from Washington.
Wyoming is revising and commenting
on several draft instruction memoranda
(IM) issued by BLM, he continued. Most
relate to grazing operations, but Rieman
pointed out at least one focused on oil
and gas leasing. He said the state's main
argument was that the executive order's
core area strategy rendered the IMs unnecessary in Wyoming.
The national BLM office has suggested
it must issue the IMs as part of the
planning process, and they will not function as management directives, Rieman
noted. "There are those in nongovernmental organizations that would like to
use this as leverage to ensure that there
is no development in core habitats," he
warned. "Of course, that is something
we will resist."
State Mitigation Efforts
Wyoming has asked all state and
federal agencies to adhere to its mitigation
framework, the Wildlife and Natural Resource Trust's Budd said. While there
have been reports of cooperation, he
noted, some areas-most notably related
to net conservation gain-were likely to
be problematic.
"Net conservation gain cannot be measured on a project-by-project basis. We
are going to have massive conservation
gains," he said. "If we adhere to a very
strict definition of net conservation gain,
and it becomes a bucks-and-acres game,
at the end of the day you end up asking,
what we really got. We got a bunch of
acreage that is marginal for the birds,
and the birds are not even using it."
The efficacy of net conservation gains
must be measured by evaluating habitat
and species with an eye toward landscape-
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