Angling Publications - Index

Angling Publications - may2008 - Index

Sportsmen in the Rocky
Mountain West might be the
most impacted user group when
it comes to the ongoing rush
to drill for fossil fuels beneath
western public lands, so it
makes sense hunters and anglers
are taking the lead in an effort
to redefine what responsible
energy development actually
looks like in the region.
Trout Unlimited has
joined the National Wildlife
Federation and the Theodore
Roosevelt Conservation
Partnership to create Sportsmen
For Responsible Energy
Development. Using the
collective talents of the three
sportsmen-oriented conservation
groups, the new campaign
seeks to improve development
practices on the ground and
protect important fish and
game habitat in the West on
behalf of sportsmen.
Launched in April of this
year, SFRED’s first big push
was May 21 to 24, when it
sponsored the Responsible Energy
Development Symposium
in Jackson Hole, Wyoming.
The event attracted more than
200 interested policymakers,
sportsmen and scientists from
around the West who gathered
at Jackson Lake Lodge and
tackled the onerous duty of
examining today’s oil and gas
drilling practices, while taking
special note of how important
fish and game habitat
8
TROUT UNLIMITED
Chris Hunt
Responsible Energy Development
is suffering because of them.
The attendees were essentially
charged with producing
a solid set of recommendations
that can be boiled down to an
effective new energy agenda
for western oil and gas drilling.
SFRED’s leaders would, ideally,
like to present the outcomes
of the symposium to a new
presidential administration and
a new Congress, all on behalf
of the hunters and anglers who
have perhaps the most intimate
connections with public lands
in the Rockies.
“We’ve been very clear
from the start that we’re not
interested in stopping oil and
gas exploration and drilling on
public land,” said Corey Fisher,
a TU field coordinator who
is working with volunteers in
Colorado and Utah to ensure
appropriate measures are put
in place on important public
lands in those states to ensure
hunting and fishing resources
are protected. “We simply
believe there is room for the
industry and for sportsmen,
so long as habitat is ultimately
protected. If we continue to
lose habitat, we lose opportunity.
For the future of hunting
and fishing on public lands,
we must find a better way to
get at the buried fuel, and I
think we can do that.”
Unfortunately, present practices
and the political philosophy
of the Bush administration
leave little room for negotiation.
The federal Bureau of
Land Management is operating
under a White House directive
to lease and drill, seemingly at
will. In recent years, the industry
has been exempted from
some of the most elementary
environmental regulations ever
written—clean water and clean
air laws, for example.
“This isn’t just affecting
hunters and fishermen,” said
Greg McReynolds, a TU field
coordinator in New Mexico.
“It’s affecting communities.
It’s affecting agriculture. It’s
affecting a uniquely Western
way of life.”
The present practices that
seem to incorporate the “drill
first, think later” mantra are
perhaps the most troublesome
obstacles sportsmen face as they
work to reform the way oil and
gas are pulled from the beneath
important fish and game
habitat. That’s why the data
from the Responsible Energy
Development Symposium
in Jackson will be carefully
analyzed and then presented on
behalf of anglers and hunters to
the next administration and the
next Congress.
“Even though sportsmen
don’t tend to test the political
winds and are more tuned
into what’s happening on the
ground to the places they
hunt and fish, I think it’s in
our best interest to approach
Will the Sportsmen’s Bill
of Rights help protect
vital water resources?
a new administration with
solid data on the issues and
continue our efforts to work
to ensure the protection of
our heritage,” Fisher said.
“That’s what’s really on the
line here—our right to hunt
and fish on public lands, and,
more importantly, the right to
pass that heritage down to our
kids and grandkids.”
The campaign has already
produced one tangible
document, and it’s receiving
wide-spread, bipartisan support.
Dubbed the Sportsmen’s
Bill of Rights, the document
is essentially a list of reasonable
expectations hunters and
anglers should adopt whenever
they venture afield. The list
of 10 “rights” includes the
expectation that public land
will remain in public hands;
that industry will clean up after
itself; and that vital land and
water resources will be forever
protected.
“We’re not after anything
unreasonable,” McReynolds
said. “We’re just asking that
our quality of life doesn’t suffer
today, or in the future, at the
hands of the energy industry.”
Chris Hunt is the communications
director for Trout
Unlimited’s Public Lands
Initiative. He can be reached
at chunt@tu.org
CHRIS HUNT PHOTOS