And now:Ish <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> writes: >X-Sender: [EMAIL PROTECTED] >Date: Thu, 17 Dec 1998 09:46:56 -0700 >To: "Wild Rockies Alerts" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> >From: Wild Rockies InfoNet <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> >Subject: Clearcuts, New Oil Wells in the Shoshone NF >Sender: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > >Greater Yellowstone Coalition >Jackson Hole Conservation Alliance >Wyoming Chapter of the Sierra Club >Wyoming Outdoor Council > >More Clearcuts, New Oil Wells In the Heart of the Shoshone National Forest, >the Forest Service May Allow Both. Unless... > >Ramshorn Peak is one of the most prominent landmarks in the Absaroka >Mountains. Motorists traveling through the Wind River Valley are awed when >they first catch sight of its jagged peak, rising from a sea of spruce, >fir, and whitebark pine. The cliffs tower over the headwaters of Tappan >and Brent Creeks, just outside the Washakie Wilderness, north of Dubois, >Wyoming. > >This is where the Forest Service is preparing the Ramshorn Environmental >Impact Statement (EIS) to simultaneously consider a major timber harvest >and an oil company's proposal to develop an exploratory well. > >The latter would involve bulldozing a road, gouging out waste pits, pouring >concrete pads, erecting drill rigs and-- if the company hits oil or gas-- >installing pipelines, dehydrators, condensate tanks, gas "sweetening" >plants, and many other eyesores. The proposed timber sale will "treat" >over 700 acres of forest, and build more than 5 miles of new road. All >this development will take place on the same 14,000 acres. > >Do you want industrial development a few miles from the Washakie >Wilderness? If not, please consider writing to the Forest Service. > >More than scenery is at stake: > >Biologists have called the Ramshorn area some of the the best grizzly bear >habitat in the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem. At least 15 bears use the >area. It's also the first place outside Yellowstone Park where recently >reintroduced wolves chose to den, one of the few remote places in Wyoming >where lynx tracks have been found and it provides some of the best elk >habitat in the state. > >The site is also a favorite recreation spot for locals and visitors to the >Upper Wind River Valley. Hiking, backpacking, horsepacking, fishing, and >hunting would be compromised by traffic, flaring of gas, and other round >the-clock activity that comes with oil and gas development. > >The Shoshone is facing too many pressures: > >* Over the next ridge, the Forest Service has already approved the Double >Cabin Timber Sale for 1999-2000, which will further compromise important >habitat and inevitably send the area's unstable soils into the Wiggins >Fork-- a nominated "Wild and Scenic" river. > >* vAlso in the Wind River Valley, contractors are gearing up to straighten >and widen Togwotee Pass Highway. In areas where grizzly bears are known to >cross, the highway's footprint on the landscape will grow as trees are >removed and more surface becomes paved. > >The combined effects of these projects--some already approved, others under >consideration--could be disastrous for wildlife in the area. > >Please write the Shoshone National Forest and tell them: > >The exploratory well under the Ramshorn should not be approved. Grizzlies >and other wildlife depend on this important habitat and it should not be >sacrificed as a development zone! The Ramshorn EIS must analyze: > >* The cumulative effects of the proposed Brent Creek timber sale, as well >as the Double Cabin Timber sale, the Togwotee Pass highway reconstruction, >oil and gas leasing in the Brent Creek and Sheridan Pass areas and in four >management areas being considered for leasing on the other side of the >Continental Divide in the Bridger-Teton National Forest. > >* The effects that oil and gas leasing, exploration and development will >have on lynx, grizzly bears, wolves, elk, moose and goshawks. > >* The impacts of increased human activity and the potential for human/bear >encounters. > >* The impacts to roadless areas, wilderness, air quality, water quality, >wildlife migration routes, historic/cultural resources and >visual/recreational resources. > >* The environmental impacts of exploration and full field oil and gas >development including the construction of roads and all the other >facilities and activities associated with petroleum development. > > >Other points you may wish to emphasize: > >* As required by the Endangered Species Act and the National Environmental >Policy Act, the Forest Service must consult with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife >Service regarding the combined projects' potential effects on grizzly >bears, lynx and wolves. > >* Because Hudson Oil stands to make a substantial profit by developing our >national forest, taxpayers should not foot the bill for the costs of the >EIS. Furthermore, the EIS should include a reclamation plan, backed up by >a bond, that will ensure the area can be restored to its natural condition. > >* The Forest Service should study the impacts of oil and gas development on >the society and economy of Dubois including balancing the economic benefits >of hunting, fishing, recreation, wildlife viewing with the short-term >economic benefits of oil and gas. > >Send your comments to: >Bob Rossman, ID Team Leader, >808 Meadow Lane, Cody WY 82414 >(307)527-6241 >email: [EMAIL PROTECTED] (if you send an e-mail, be sure to >also send a hard copy). > >(Sorry if you get more than one copy of this alert. If you get an extra, >please pass on to a friend.--Thanks!)**P* >comments is January 15. > >************************************************************************ >List-Subscribe: <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]> >List-Unsubscribe: <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]> >News Submissions or Problems: <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]> >This list is a public service provided by WIN: http://www.wildrockies.org > &&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&& In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. section 107, this material is distributed without profit or payment ...http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.shtml &&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&& Tsonkwadiyonrat (We are ONE Spirit) Unenh onhwa' Awayaton http://www.tdi.net/ishgooda/ `"` `"` `"` `"` `"` `"`
