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December 14, 2005
VICTORY! AGENCY
CANCELS OIL DRILLING LAND AUCTION AFTER FORESTWATCH FILES
PROTEST
Land
Giveaway Threatened Los Padres National Forest, Carrizo Plain
National Monument, Bitter Creek National Wildlife Refuge, and
the Cuyama River
Bakersfield, CA -- In
response to an official protest filed by ForestWatch, the
federal Bureau of Land Management (BLM) has cancelled an
upcoming land auction for oil and gas drilling near some of
California's most important natural treasures.
The land auction,
originally scheduled for December 14, targeted 27 parcels of
land totaling 19,053 acres in Santa Barbara, Ventura, San Luis
Obispo, and Kern counties. During the auction, oil companies
could have obtained the right to drill for oil on federal and
private lands along the boundary of the Los Padres National
Forest, the Carrizo Plain National Monument, the
Bitter Creek National Wildlife Refuge, and inside the
Wind Wolves Preserve, the largest privately-owned nature
preserve on the West Coast.
Also proposed for leasing was
a parcel split in half by the Cuyama River, home to large
numbers of rare plants and animals and declared an “Area of High
Ecological Significance” by the U.S. Forest Service.
All but one of the parcels
contain habitat for rare plants and animals threatened by
extinction, including the California condor, the San Joaquin kit
fox, and the blunt-nosed leopard lizard. Some of the targeted
parcels were also located along popular recreation routes
leading into the Los Padres National Forest, like the road
leading up Santa Barbara Canyon into the Dick Smith Wilderness.
Federal oil leases are sold
for as little as $2.00 per acre.
Targeted Lands
Click
here to read our previous
story about which lands were slated for auction, including
photos and maps.
Our Protest
The BLM initially announced
the lease sale on October 28, 2005. ForestWatch became concerned
after reviewing the parcel maps, biological data, and the
agency's three-page environmental study. Because of these
concerns, ForestWatch filed an administrative protest on
November 30 challenging the inclusion of 11 of the 27 parcels in
the lease sale. In our protest, filed with the BLM's California
State Director, ForestWatch spelled out in detail how the
auctioning of these specific parcels would violate several
environmental laws.
For example, the BLM is
required by federal law to prepare a detailed environmental
impact statement before conducting an oil lease sale. However,
for this particular lease sale, the agency only prepared a
short, 3-page checklist that referenced a more general (and
outdated) environmental report prepared over nine years ago.
ForestWatch also pointed out
in its protest that the BLM failed to notify the public about a
new agency policy that requires protests be filed 15 days before
the date of the lease sale. Instead, the agency’s “Notice of
Competitive Oil and Gas Lease Sale” incorrectly stated that
protests could be filed up to the day before the lease
sale. This inconsistency created confusion and forced
ForestWatch and other concerned citizens to guess which policy
the agency would follow.
“When our public lands are
auctioned off to the oil industry, it's vitally important that
the agency study the potential environmental damage of oil
drilling. It’s also important that officials spell out the
correct procedures for citizens to express their concerns in
writing. The BLM failed to take both of these necessary steps
in its race to open up our natural treasures to oil drilling,”
said Jeff Kuyper, executive director of Los Padres ForestWatch.
What's Next
The next BLM lease sale is
tentatively scheduled for March 15, 2006. Officials have vowed
to lump the parcels from the cancelled lease sale into this next
land auction. ForestWatch will monitor future lease proposals to
ensure that lands bordering national forests, wildlife refuges,
and national monuments are not auctioned for oil drilling.
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