Drilling in New Mexico's Valle Vidal

Draws Fire from Coalition

April Reese, Southwest Correspondent

The Land Letter, February 2004

SANTA FE, N.M. -- An unusual coalition of ranchers, hunting outfitters and environmentalists is opposing plans to drill for coalbed methane in a 40,000-acre expanse of mountain meadow and forest known throughout the country for its trophy elk.

Texas-based El Paso Corp. is hoping to lease land on the eastern side of the Valle Vidal in the Carson National Forest from the Bureau of Land Management. But first, the Forest Service must determine whether coalbed methane development is a "reasonable" activity to allow in the valle, which is currently managed as a multiple use area.

El Paso believes it is. In fact, the company says, the agency and critics of the proposal have only to look across the valle to the Vermejo Park Ranch, where it already has a coalbed methane operation up and running, for evidence that CBM development and conservation are compatible.

But a range of interests, from ranchers to hunters to hikers, chafe at the idea of allowing coalbed methane development in the Valle Vidal. They say drilling would industrialize its scenic landscape, fragment habitat and displace wildlife, including elk -- the area's most highly prized game species. Coalbed methane development, which involves pumping large quantities of water to access the gas trapped in underground coal seams, would also adversely affect water supplies in an arid region already grappling with drought, they say.

"There are some places where you should not have drilling, and the Valle Vidal is one of them," said Brian Shields, executive director for the environmental group Amigos Bravos. Amigos Bravos and other critics have formed a group called the Coalition for the Valle Vidal, which contends that Carson National Forest managers are under pressure from the Bush administration to fast-track the proposal. In January, they sent a letter to the Forest Service beseeching the agency to conduct a thorough environmental review of the proposal.

A Hunting Mecca

Ranging in elevation from 7,700 to 12,584 feet, the Valle Vidal area undulates across the alpine meadows and conifer forests of the Sangre de Cristo Mountains in the Southern Rockies.
Several Rio Grande and Canadian River tributaries begin here, and the area is known for its rich wildlife, including mule deer, mountain lions, black bears, bald eagles and Rio Grande cutthroat trout. The valle is also home to the largest herd of elk in New Mexico, attracting hunters nationwide, according to Carson National Forest spokesman Benjamin Romero.

Oil company Pennzoil donated the valle to the Forest Service in 1982, retaining its rights to develop coal resources in the area. At the time, the Forest Service indicated that it would manage the new "multiple use area" primarily for wildlife.

The coalition contends that drilling for coalbed methane would compromise that objective, but El Paso spokeswoman Kim Wallace said the company can tap coalbed methane without harming elk or any of the area's other ecological assets. Wallace pointed to El Paso's project in neighboring Vermejo Park Ranch, owned by media mogul Ted Turner, as evidence that energy development and environmental protection are not mutually exclusive.

"We have operated in Vermejo Park Ranch under strict checks and balances," she said. "We've done that there, and we could do that here [in the Valle Vidal]. I think these things could all coexist."

But those whose livelihoods depend on keeping the area's elk herd and rangeland healthy are less sanguine. The wells and the "spider web" of roads and pipelines would irrevocably change the Valle Vidal, crowding out wildlife and destroying rangeland, said Stuart Wilde, an ecologist and guide with Wild Earth Llama Adventures, an outfitter that operates in the Valle Vidal.

Critics said coalbed methane development would decimate the landscape and disrupt the valle's trademark elk herd. "When the property was given to the American public, it was for the express purpose of protecting habitat," said Shields of Amigos Bravos. "It would be an incredibly cynical thing to lease that now for coalbed methane development and destroy that whole area."

And the Valle Vidal cannot afford to lose scarce water resources to energy development, Wilde added. "The most precious natural resource in our drought-ridden rural communities is water, and before we start ruining our aquifer, we need to take a look at this," he said.

Carson National Forest's Romero, who is a biologist by training, said the valle's elk herd winters in the area where El Paso wants to drill. While elk are "very adaptable," they may not be able to tolerate coalbed methane development, he said.

"With that kind of traffic and noise, elk will displace themselves, and they usually won't come back," he said. "It may or may not be that you'll see as many animals as you see today. It's very likely you won't."

The development restrictions imposed at Vermejo Park Ranch to reduce conflicts with elk may not be feasible on public lands, Romero added. "Turner put a lot of mitigation measures in place. It's private land, and he has a big say in how it's done. But with public land, the management scenarios are usually a little different."

A multiple use guide drawn up in the 1980s steers the current management of the Valle Vidal, but it offers little direction with regard to energy development, according to Romero. While a revision of the forest plan is not expected until 2007, the agency "will probably speed it up" to address the CBM proposal, he said.

For now, Carson National Forest managers have their hands full completing the paperwork for a natural gas proposal in the Jicarilla area of the forest, Romero said. While some critics suspect the Forest Service is putting the Valle Vidal project on the fast track at the behest of the Bush administration, Romero said it has been bumped back in line behind the Jicarilla plan.

"At first, it was on a fast track, but we've slowed it down because of budget constraints," he said.

The agency recently released the draft environmental impact statement for the Jicarilla project and is currently analyzing public comments, he said.

The Forest Service's study on whether CBM development is compatible with other uses in the Valle Vidal is expected in mid-April, Romero said. If the project is approved, it will probably take 5 or 6 years before El Paso gets the final go-ahead, he said.

If the project goes forward, it will join a growing list of energy development projects in New Mexico. The Jicarilla proposal calls for drilling 694 wells in the area over 20 years, adding to 800 existing wells. Additional development is also planned in the San Juan Basin, which sits on the New Mexico-Colorado border and already produces 7 percent of the nation's natural gas supply. Some areas under consideration for development, most notably Otero Mesa in the southern part of the state, have never seen large-scale energy development before (Land Letter, Jan. 15).

According to federal estimates, by 2020 the United States will need about 50 percent more natural gas to meet growing demand. About 10 percent to 20 percent of the country's natural gas reserves remain untapped.

Coalition for the Valle Vidal
P.O. Box 238 • Taos, NM 87571

(505) 758-3874 • (505) 776-3276

Viva@ValleVidal.org