BLM Prepares Illegal Move to Open Ouray National Wildlife Refuge to Oil & Gas, a Dangerous Precedent for Wildlife

The Bureau of Land Management announced an unprecedented proposal to open Ouray National Wildlife Refuge in Utah to new oil and gas leasing, a direct violation of federal regulations that prohibit new leases on refuge lands. 

The proposal is a sharp departure from how oil and gas development has historically occurred within the Refuge System. While oil and gas wells do exist on some refuges, they involve privately owned mineral rights or federal leases that pre-date the establishment of the given refuge. BLM is now introducing something fundamentally different and legally impermissible — opening federal minerals beneath an existing national wildlife refuge to new leasing. 

“This proposal is not just about one refuge in Utah and could set a dangerous precedent for opening other national wildlife refuges to drilling, despite a regulatory prohibition established to protect these public lands,” said Stephanie Altman, senior energy and biodiversity specialist at Defenders of Wildlife. “No agency is above the law, and BLM cannot sidestep protections designed specifically for our national wildlife refuges.” 

Ouray National Wildlife Refuge stretches along 16 miles of the Green River and supports more than 350 species of fish and terrestrial wildlife. It provides habitat for the federally protected yellow-billed cuckoo bird and four fish protected under the Endangered Species Act: the endangered bonytail, Colorado pikeminnow and threatened razorback sucker and humpback chub, which play unique roles in the surrounding ecosystem. The refuge also contains critical nursery habitat and a federal fish hatchery supporting recovery of these imperiled fish.

"Wildlife refuges are the only federal lands where wildlife comes first,” said Nathan Marcy, senior federal lands policy analyst at Defenders of Wildlife. “Opening Ouray to leasing would put the needs of wildlife behind the profits of the oil and gas industries. If we allow this to move forward at Ouray, refuges across the West could be at risk.”

BLM proposes opening approximately 5,200 acres of federal minerals beneath the refuge to oil and gas leasing, allowing companies to drill horizontally from well pads just outside its boundaries. Locating well pads outside the refuge does not insulate it from the impacts of oil and gas development. Drilling would still occur beneath the refuge, and noise, pollution, habitat fragmentation, spills and risks to the Green River could threaten the wildlife and habitats the refuge was established to protect.

Defenders is calling on BLM to follow the law, withdraw the proposal and keep Ouray National Wildlife Refuge closed to new oil and gas leasing.

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