FWP Calls For a “New Model” of Energy Development
FWP officials acknowledge that energy development will and should continue to grow in Montana. But to ensure that wildlife and fish are not put at risk, the department and conservation groups are calling for a “new model” of energy development and production.
Currently, intensive natural gas drilling can occur all at once across a landscape, disrupting wildlife populations and damaging wildlife habitat. Under the new model, which would control the geographic scope and rate of gas development expansion, Montana would:
- Make critical habitats for key species such as sage grouse and mule deer off-limits to drilling.
- Require incremental development so that gas drilling would be concentrated in one area at a time.
- Apply stipulations to leases and drilling permits. (Also known as “best management practices,” the stipulations would set standards of well spacing, power line location, road width, and other development to reduce disturbance and damage to wildlife and habitat. They would also require developers to begin restoring habitat as soon as natural gas was extracted from a site.)
- Require developers to submit habitat mitigation funds and restoration plans for a site before drilling could begin.
- Monitor wildlife populations during the development to determine if the best management practices were working or needed to be adjusted.
This is a step-by-step process that makes sure Montana avoids the boom-and-bust approach we’re seeing in Wyoming and elsewhere,” says FWP director Jeff Hagener. “It allows the state and industry to learn which mitigation practices work and which don’t, so we can continue improving as we go along.” Hagener says he firmly believes Montana can develop energy and protect fish and wildlife at the same time: “We’ve begun working with all interested parties to develop and, I hope, carry out a new approach to energy development that recognizes and protects Montana’s fish, wildlife, and recreational resources.”
