Environmental groups are hopeful that a recent ruling that invalidated land management plans in Montana means the federal government will redraft the documents. Montana's leading oil and gas industry group, meanwhile, says members should have a fair chance at using those lands.
U.S. District Court Judge Brian Morris earlier this month blocked land use and resource management plans for the Bureau of Land Management’s Lewistown and Missoula field offices along with a plan amendment for the Miles City Field Office.
Morris found the plans had been improperly approved by William Perry Pendley, who Morris also found had served unlawfully in his position for more than 400 days without U.S. Senate confirmation.
The plans outlined what type of activities are permitted on BLM land for up to 20 years and opened large areas to oil and gas exploration, though Alan Olson with the Montana Petroleum Association says there’s little industry interest in the low-value mineral leases that the Lewistown plan opened up.
“I would be very surprised if there would be any wholesale oil and gas development in that area, but just to say it’s off limits to oil and gas and it’s open to everything else to me doesn’t make any sense," Olson says.
He feels the oil and gas industry has a right to bid for leases in Central Montana, just like people have a right to hunt, fish and recreate there.
“BLM lands are multiple use lands. They’re public lands. They don’t belong to Patagonia. They’re open to the public, and we are part of that public," Olson says.
The Lewistown plan opened up most of its 650,000 acres of surface property and 1.2 million acres of mineral estate to oil and gas leasing with several levels of industry-related activity allowed on the surface.
The plan also established Backcountry Conservation Areas over more than 106,000 acres. The designation prioritizes recreational opportunities like hunting and fishing, but permits oil and gas leasing.
Land Tawney with environmental group Backcountry Hunters and Anglers points to the Lewistown plan as a prime example of how Pendley’s leadership influenced land management in Montana.
“Backcountry areas are an important tool in the toolbox to have another designation, but again, energy dominance. That word dominance means that other people are losing out," says Tawney.
Pendley is a former oil industry attorney who servedfor almost 30 years as president of conservative nonprofit Mountain States Legal Foundation, which advocates for private land ownership over public access, less government oversight and the right to bear arms.
Pendley said the federal government should not manage landprior to taking the post of acting director to the federal government’s land management agency.
Montana Governor Steve Bullock challenged his tenure.
With the new plans approved by Pendley out of commission, land managers will fall back on documents that Aubrey Bertram with environmental group Montana Wilderness Association says are out-of-date.
"But they actually provide better protections for these critical landscapes than the plans that were approved under William Perry Pendley earlier this summer," says Betram.
BLM spent roughly six years writing and revising the land management documents Pendley approved. The agency now faces the possibility of reworking at least some aspects of that process.
Betram says she hopes it’ll happen under new leadership.
"It’s hard to imagine that anybody else at the helm wouldn’t be an improvement, that we wouldn’t see some differences in the processes and priorities under a different administration," says Betram.
In a statement, a BLM spokesperson says the agency disagrees with the court ruling and is reviewing all legal options to fight the decision.
Senator Jon Tester introduced legislation Oct. 21 to block any possible appeal of the court decision that found Pendley illegally filled the role of Bureau of Land Management acting director.
