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Thompson Divide is a sporting paradise.

Unfortunately, oil and gas interests threaten to permanently alter the area’s sporting and other outdoor opportunities. At the heart of the matter are 81 energy leases that run right through the center of this unspoiled section of public land. If these leases are developed, the opportunities to hunt and fish, hike, bike, backpack, horsepack and obtain clean water for healthy communities and downstream agriculture could be severely diminished.

How can we keep it the way it is now?

Trout Unlimited  has worked with local stakeholders in Wyoming, New Mexico and Montana to find credible working solutions in similar situations where balance needed to be found between development interests and the best interests of the people who live nearby. Our experience makes us confident that we can find that balance in the Thompson Divide by working with those who know the area best: local outfitters, hunters, anglers and the small business owners who rely on the Thompson Divide to make their living.

The Facts:

• 81 oil and gas leases exist in the core of the Thompson Divide, many of which are set to expire next year.

• SG Interests is attempting to unitize 32 leases (unitzation is a process that consolidates many leases into a few. The idea is to retain the integrity of the resource pool by limiting the number of wells drilled. This allows operators to ensure they are maximizing the amount of oil or gas they can produce.

• If unitization is granted by the BLM, the agency responsible for accepting or denying unitization requests, then development of the leases is imminent. That is because energy companies are required to show they are actively pursuing the resource. There is no public process involved in unitization requests.

• Oil and gas development will permanently alter the character of the Thompson Divide because dozens of miles of new roads will be required, industrial traffic will travel through small communities and industrial pollutants could enter the air and water, threatening community airsheds and water supplies.

• If the leases are developed, sporting and other recreation opportunities would decrease dramatically – people don’t want, and often can’t,  hunt, fish, ride horseback or backpack in an industrial zone.

• Development would likely damage fish and big game habitat because the energy leases slice through several elk rearing areas and several streams with native cutthroat trout populations. Studies have demonstrated that that deer and elk avoid oil and gas operations; in places with heavy development, big game populations plummet.

• The White River National Forest, which encompasses most of the Thompson Divide, is the most visited National Forest in the nation. Visitors come to experience great hunting and fishing, sweeping vistas, healthy streams and vast forests, not energy development. The local economy is built around outdoor recreation.

Solutions exist that are equitable to the companies that hold the leases.

• Proposed legislation contains language that allows energy companies to retire their leases, let them expire, or sell them into non-development agreements.

• Similar legislation and similar solutions have been enacted in three other areas, and all are now hailed as great successes.

• Click here to read more about a solution that can be applied to the Thompson Divide.