those mule deer are obviously terrorists then

[Guest guest]

Study Shows Wyoming Gas Projects Harming Mule Deer

 

October 10, 2005 — By Becky Bohrer, Associated Press

BILLINGS, Mont. — A new study suggests natural gas development in western

Wyoming is forcing mule deer into less suitable winter range and affecting the

animals' movements in an area known as the Pinedale Anticline.

 

The number of mule deer on the Mesa winter range dropped a " disconcerting " 46

percent from 2002 to 2005, according to the report from Western EcoSystems

Technology Inc. Models and maps indicated that, through at least three winters,

deer tended to favor areas further away from well pads.

 

Such behavior suggests that seasonal drilling restrictions may not be achieving

what land managers had intended, the researchers said.

 

The study includes a control population of mule deer that winter on the Pinedale

Front range, near the Wind River Mountains, but researchers didn't find

concurrent evidence of a population decline there. The decline on the Mesa was

attributed to deaths, changes in birth and movement of deer to new wintering

range, though researchers couldn't pinpoint how much each of those factors

contributed.

 

The study, funded largely by the energy development firm Questar Exploration and

Production Co., is part of an ongoing, years-long look at the potential effects

of gas development on mule deer in the Green River Basin. The results were

released this week by environmental groups.

 

Peter Aengst, an energy campaign coordinator with The Wilderness Society, said

the study should serve as a wake-up call to federal land managers that changes

are needed, perhaps in the pace of development or the manner in which the gas is

tapped.

 

There are more than 400 wells on the Pinedale Anticline, and a 2000 study

anticipated 2,800 wells over time. But Aengst and others say that's probably

conservative.

 

" We can't just rely on the way we've been doing things, " he said. " We have to do

it differently. "

 

 

 

The propagandist's purpose is to make one set of people forget that certain

other

sets of people are human: Aldous Huxley