WELC is representing Biodiversity Conservation Alliance and nature photographer George Wuerthner in taking a legal challenge to the 10th Circuit Court of Appeals to protect sage grouse and black-tailed prairie dogs from coalbed methane drilling in the Powder River Basin. The case appeals a ruling by Judge Johnson of the U.S. District Court of Wyoming that cleared the way for large-scale coalbed methane drilling on the Wyoming side of the Powder River Basin.

“This case is all about restoring balance between energy development and native wildlife in the Powder River Basin,” said Erik Molvar, Wildlife Biologist with Biodiversity Conservation
Alliance. “We’ve seen dramatic declines in sage grouse and prairie dog populations symptomatic of a broader ecosystem collapse that affects all native wildlife. Fortunately, a common sense solution exists — a phased development management program which would provide natural gas but protect native wildlife populations and habitat by controlling the timing and location of development. Unfortunately, our federal land managers haven’t exercised much common sense and allowed uncontrolled, unbalanced development that has pushed native wildlife, and the sage grouse in particular, to the brink of extinction.”

Click here to read the press release.