Montana's Rocky Mountain Front: Interior announces plans for larger study

By BECKY BOHRER (Associated Press)
10/05/04

BILLINGS, Mont. — A top Interior Department official suggested Tuesday that oil and gas leaseholders in Montana's Rocky Mountain Front begin looking at lease swaps or buy-outs, saying the government could decide in the next few years that development in any portion of the rugged area isn't appropriate.

"This could be an area that we don't want to see developed," Rebecca Watson, the agency's assistant secretary for land and mineral management, told reporters in Billings.

Her comments followed the agency's confirmation Saturday that it was halting work on an environmental impact study for the Front's Blackleaf area, a part of the Front where a Canadian company wanted to drill.

Watson said rather than pursuing an environmental study for a specific area of the Front, officials are planning a much broader "landscape level" study, likely beginning in 2007.

Watson said that three-year window gives those who hold leases inside the Front time to consider their options, including lease exchanges or purchases by the federal government or others interested in keeping the Front undeveloped.

"There are opportunities out there, and this gives time to discuss those," she said.

Resources slated for the Blackleaf environmental study are being redirected toward another planning project in north-central Montana, officials said.

Watson said using the resources to work on the West Hi-Line environmental study and management plan was considered a better use of federal money after taking into account factors, including a lot of public comment over the controversial Blackleaf project and the potential for costly and lengthy litigation.

Also Tuesday, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Director Steve Williams announced plans to look at establishing a conservation easement program on the Front.