More than 71,000 Acres Dropped from Agency Proposal

In December, Wild South delivered a huge holiday present for our forests and our members. On behalf of Wild South, WildLaw filed a formal protest with the United States Bureau of Land Management (BLM) over a proposal to lease 148 parcels covering 71,043 acres in the National Forests in Alabama for oil and gas drilling. In response to our protest, the BLM withdrew all 148 parcels from the sale.

BLM had proposed to lease these parcels without conducting the proper environmental impacts analysis, as required by the National Environmental Policy Act. Nor did BLM properly consult with other agencies, as required by the Endangered Species Act.

While small scale oil and gas leasing (an average of one well per year on five acres) has been successfully carried out in Alabama’s national forests in the past without significant impacts, the Forest Service and BLM have never done the analysis required to look at and support leasing such massive areas in general. They also have never looked at the impacts of leasing on any scale on the treasured wild lands and recreational resources that were in jeopardy this time.

BLM proposed to open to oil and gas exploration and development some of the wildest and finest places in the Talladega and Conecuh National Forests. Now, they are off the auction block, and we plan to work with the Forest Service to amend the management plan for the National Forests in Alabama to remove these lands from the leasable base permanently.

Such an effort is already underway on the Bankhead National Forest, where a previous legal action by Wild South and WildLaw resulted in the entire Bankhead being taken out of the leasable base during a multi-year revision to the plan.

What BLM Proposed

Talladega National Forest

In the Talladega Division, BLM offered up vast areas of forest to oil and gas speculators, including the Pinhoti National Recreational Trail and the Chinnabee Silent Trail. The parcels also included Rebecca Mountain (an area proposed by Wild South as wilderness for more than a decade), the viewshed of the Cheaha Wilderness, the viewshed of the Dugger Mountain Wilderness, and most of the recreational lakes and campgrounds in the forest.

In the Oakmulgee Division, BLM proposed to lease the only public property in the forest that was along the Cahaba River, Alabama’s longest undammed river and the most biologically diverse small river in the nation.

Conecuh National Forest

BLM proposed to lease to developers the forest’s main recreational lake and all its shores. In addition, BLM targeted the headwaters of the Blackwater River, one of the coastal plain’s premier recreational waters.