Trout Unlimited late last week filed a protest over a new round of leases the Forest Service will put up for auction Aug. 16, a sale that will increase the total number of parcels available for energy exploration around Strawberry to 89. Approximately one-quarter of those leases are in roadless areas.
"We are very, very concerned, but until now we haven't gone public, so the angling community as a whole really is just starting to get a feel for what's going on," said Paul Dremann, Trout Unlimited's Utah chapter vice president for conservation. "All you have to do is look at a place like Pinedale [Wyo.] to see how horrendous this could become. We don't think it will come to that, but it could."
Dremann acknowledges that the odds of actual drilling permits ever being issued are relatively low - previous lease sales in the area have netted the minimum $2 an acre, meaning the leases are not in huge demand. But he argues that Strawberry's blue-ribbon status, the $37 million investment that helped make it that way and watershed considerations should provide more than enough reasons to set it aside.
"The goal [of restoration] was to create an environment where there would be 10 million juvenile fish created in these tributaries, an environment that provides much more natural reproduction than hatcheries," said Dremann. "So you're talking about a heck of a lot of money spent in the last 15-18 years aimed solely at the fisheries and stream habitat."
Forest Service spokesman Dave Whittekiend said Monday that all leasing decisions around Strawberry are based on a previous environmental impact statement and comply with the Uinta National Forest plan.
"If we were to receive an application for permit, we'd have to do site-specific analysis and determine what kind of mitigation would be involved," said Whittekiend. "Those are special areas and care would be taken to make sure we would protect them."
But in its protest letter to Sally Wisely, state director of the Bureau of Land Management - the agency oversees subsurface development on federal land - Trout Unlimited maintains that Forest Service guidelines require that site-specific analysis be done before leases are sold.
"Once that [lease] is conveyed, it becomes much more difficult to take full and fair account of the wildlife, recreation, clean water and other values that will be impaired by the exercise of that right," the letter said.
Sportsmen's groups also have expressed concern about the Strawberry leasing, but are taking a wait-and-see approach.
"The Diamond Mountain area [above Strawberry] is prime habitat for elk and other big game, but we are confident that the possible impacts will be mitigated," said Bill Christensen of the Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation. "Thus far, the BLM has been sensitive to our needs, and the gas and oil companies have been proactive in addressing these issues. So although we have concerns, we're willing to give them the benefit of the doubt. Their track record when it comes to mitigation is pretty good."
The Central Utah Water Conservancy District, which has a major conveyance facility in nearby Diamond Fork, also professes to be unconcerned at this point.
"We've talked about the issue internally," said spokeswoman Chris Finlinson. "Of course, if permits are issued we'll be interested and will be watching, but right now, we don't think it will be a problem for us."
jbaird@sltrib.com
