{"id":3467,"date":"2011-02-12T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2011-02-12T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/coloradowildlife.org\/uncategorized\/state-land-board-withdraws-3-parcels-from-oil-and-gas-lease-auction-2-17-2\/"},"modified":"2011-02-12T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"2011-02-12T00:00:00","slug":"state-land-board-withdraws-3-parcels-from-oil-and-gas-lease-auction-2-17-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/coloradowildlife.org\/state-land-board-withdraws-3-parcels-from-oil-and-gas-lease-auction-2-17-2\/","title":{"rendered":"State Land Board withdraws 3 parcels from oil and gas lease auction 2\/17"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

On February 11, at the State Land Board public meeting, CWF urged that SLB staff confer in a clear, systematic process with Colorado Division of Wildlife staff about important wildlife values on proposed lease auction parcels. \u00a0This is necessary to avoid, or at least minimize adverse impacts to important wildlife and habitat. \u00a0Outcomes of the meeting: \u00a0The SLB directed staff to review with the DOW wildlife values on tracts that will be offered at the February 17 auction (those tracts in which SLB owns both the mineral rights and the surface). \u00a0The objective is to ensure that stipulations to protect very important wildlife habitat are attached to any leases offered at the auction. \u00a0At the meeting It also was announced that SLB was removing from the February 17 lease auction three tracts in the South Park Basin. \u00a0This is important for wildlife and to avoid potential harm to water quality. \u00a0Two parcels are adjacent to the popular Antero Reservoir, an important fishery. In addition, it was decided to pull from the February 17 auction a tract very close to the Gold Medal waters of the Middle Fork of the South Platte River. \u00a0 A coalition of South Park residents \u00a0and CWF urged withdrawal.<\/p>\n

[CWF had issued written comments to the Colorado Wildlife Commission in advance of its joint meeting on February 10 with the State Land Board. \u00a0CWF then made verbal comments during the public comment segment of the SLB’s meeting on February 11. ]<\/p>\n

The next step is for the SLB staff and DOW staff to work through development of a good process for DOW to learn of parcels SLB determines to offer at future quarterly auctions, and then to confer with SLB staff regarding important wildlife values, to avoid or minimize adverse impacts to Colorado’s important wildlife and habitat.<\/p>\n

Earlier — December 3, 2010<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

At the Colorado State Land Board meeting December 3, 2010, CWF made the following comments. \u00a0SLB is in the process of revising its oil and gas lease form. \u00a0SLB owns 3,988,227 acres of mineral estates and 2,819,035.59 acres of the surface.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Text of Colorado Wildlife Federation’s Comments at the State Land Board Meeting<\/p>\n

December 3, 2010<\/p>\n

Presented by Suzanne O’Neill, Executive Director<\/p>\n

\n

Colorado Wildlife Federation is a nonprofit organization.\u00a0\u00a0Our members are a broad mix of sportsmen, other wildlife conservationists, small business that derive revenue from wildlife associated recreation, and some landowners.\u00a0\u00a0Our mission is to educate and advocate for sound wildlife management in Colorado.\u00a0\u00a0We were actively involved in the legislation and lengthy public process that culminated in the Colorado Oil and Gas Conservation Commission (COGCC) amended rules for oil and gas development that addresses minimizing adverse impacts to wildlife.\u00a0\u00a0These rules represent a sound accommodation of the competing interests, a balance.\u00a0\u00a0Everyone continues to work in a constructive manner within the rules.<\/p>\n

The State Land Board is fortunate to own extensive acreage as mineral estate, coupled with surface ownership.\u00a0\u00a0The lands that have concentrations of oil or gas also happen to be rich in wildlife habitat.\u00a0\u00a0The Colorado constitution provides that economic productivity must be coupled with sound \u0153stewardship.\u009d\u00a0\u00a0The content of the key word, stewardship, sets out protection and enhancement of beauty, natural values, open sapce, and wildlife habitat for our generation and ones to come.\u00a0\u00a0Thus, the constitution imposes a duty to manage the inevitable practical tensions between energy development, on the one hand, and conservation values, on the other.<\/p>\n

As you make revisions to the lease, we hope it will incorporate a conservation ethic.\u00a0\u00a0Such an ethic is essential to a stewardly management of the tensions between fostering of economic productivity and protection of wildlife.\u00a0\u00a0As to the proposed lease provision that addresses wildlife, paragraph F. under Additional operating requirements, the obligation to select best management practices is left to the lessee, the oil and gas operator.\u00a0\u00a0In our view, this mechanism might well lead the State Land Board to assume an overpassive role in discharging its duty of stewardship.\u00a0\u00a0As to those properties owned in surface as well as subsurface, the lead in defining best management practices must be taken by the State Land Board rather than by the operators.\u00a0\u00a0The State Land Board must have an active vision of its responsibility to navigate through the tension between development and stewardship.\u00a0\u00a0Of course, there can be negotiations, but they must be informed by such a vision.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0The Division of Wildlife and operators have hammered out many best management practices in sensitive wildlife habitat under the COGCC rules. By way of example, more than 325,000 acres of the Piceance Basin are covered in \u0153wildlife migitation plans\u009d (focused on minimization of adverse impacts to wildlife) since July 2010.\u00a0\u00a0The expertise is readily available.\u00a0\u00a0Thank you for the opportunity to offer our comments.<\/p>\n

\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

On February 11, at the State Land Board public meeting, CWF urged that SLB staff confer in a clear, systematic process with Colorado Division of Wildlife staff about important wildlife values on proposed lease auction parcels. \u00a0This is necessary to avoid, or at least minimize adverse impacts to important wildlife and habitat. \u00a0Outcomes of the …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"rank_math_lock_modified_date":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-3467","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-news","7":"anons"},"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/coloradowildlife.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3467"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/coloradowildlife.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/coloradowildlife.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/coloradowildlife.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/coloradowildlife.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3467"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/coloradowildlife.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3467\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/coloradowildlife.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3467"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/coloradowildlife.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3467"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/coloradowildlife.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3467"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}