Upper Green River Valley (Wyoming)
Threat: Oil and Gas Drilling
 Nestled between
Yellowstone and
Grand Teton
National Parks to the
north and the Red
Desert to the south,
the Upper Green
River Valley is the
longest big game
migration route in
the lower 48 states
and a crucial link
that ties the Greater
Yellowstone
Ecosystem together.
This 1.2 million-acre landscape, managed primarily by the Bureau of Land Management's
(BLM) Pinedale Field Office, sits nestled between the Wind River, Gros Ventre, and
Wyoming mountain ranges.
The valley is home to a myriad of wildlife species, including world-renowned herds of
pronghorn, mule deer (largest herd in the U.S.), elk, golden eagles, peregrine falcons,
burrowing owls and sage grouse. With more than 100,000 big-game animals dependent
on the valley for their survival, the area offers world-class wildlife viewing and hunting
opportunities. It is the largest publicly-owned big game winter range in the region.
Unfortunately for the wildlife and wild places of the Upper Green River Valley, this
spectacular area sits atop one of the largest natural gas reserves in the country. Energy
corporations are vying for virtually unrestricted access to the oil and gas deposits that lie
beneath this ecologically rich landscape. If industry prevails in its push to open up the
entire Valley to natural gas exploration and development, these southern reaches of the
Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem will be transformed from vast open spaces with freeroaming
wildlife herds, critical big game migration corridors, clean air and water, and
outstanding recreational opportunities into a sprawling industrial zone. The BLM has
already approved 500 natural gas wells on the Jonah Field and 700 wells on the Pinedale
Anticline Field, with even more proposed.
Tracie Weber with the Sierra Club in Jackson, Wyoming, worries the Upper Green River
Valley could turn into one massive natural gas field. "All one has to do is look at the
fields already up and running in the area. These areas are industrial wastelands -a web of
roads, trucks, wells, and power lines. It would be tragic to see the Upper Green meet this
same fate."
And with this rapid energy development comes another problem: flares. Beginning at
8:30 a.m. on February 13, 2004, and lasting until evening, an Anschutz Corporation gas
well in the Pinedale Anticline field began to spew out a plume of black smoke that spread
for miles across the clear winter skies.
"This was not an isolated incident," says Perry Walker, a Pinedale-area resident and an
amateur astronomer. "It's becoming a serious problem because these flares occur
frequently throughout the area. I am becoming increasingly concerned about our air
quality because these flares continue to burn, free from regulations intended to protect the
environment."
In addition to the problem of flares, many hundreds of new wells and thousands of miles
of new roads, pipelines and powerlines, and heavy vehicle traffic will generate air and
water pollution, jeopardize the Valley's renowned big-game herds and blue-ribbon trout
streams and diminish residents' quality of life.
The Bush administration energy plan will not work for the Upper Green River Valley
because it makes the wrong choices. Rather then balancing the needs of conservation,
recreation and resource development, the BLM’s plan focuses almost exclusively on
natural gas development. The administration’s energy plans ignore
high-tech, energy-efficient solutions in favor of increased oil and gas development, even
in our most wild places, like the Upper Green River Valley. We can’t drill, dig or destroy
our way out of our energy problems.
There is a better way. We must find a balance that restores the traditional multiple use
mandate from Congress to America's public lands.
Sierra Club Contact:
Tracie Weber, Wyoming: (307)733-4557
Additional Info:
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