Jonah mitigation science

Sept. 24, 2007
Oil and gas operators acknowledge the need to restore or create wildlife and plant habitat to counterbalance what has been lost to drilling and development.

Oil and gas operators acknowledge the need to restore or create wildlife and plant habitat to counterbalance what has been lost to drilling and development.

Wyoming’s Jonah gas field operators are no exception as they recruit scientific advice on ways to improve backcountry settings around Pinedale, Wyo.

Jonah field drilling has disrupted pronghorn migration routes and destroyed wintering grounds and breeding sites for greater sage grouse.

Mitigation is a way of compensating for what was lost to energy development. Mitigation can occur on a development site (onsite mitigation) or elsewhere (offsite mitigation).

A key question concerning offsite mitigation is where and when it can be used.

Jonah offsite mitigation involves acquiring nearby acreage to be preserved for use by the pronghorns and sage grouse.

Other offsite mitigation practices could include removing invasive plants and burning certain areas to encourage the growth of native plants.

EnCana Oil & Gas (USA) Inc., BP America Production Co., and other companies operating in Jonah field provided $24.5 million in offsite mitigation funds. The federal government manages much of Jonah field’s surface and mineral rights.

BP America provided a grant to Nature Conservancy scientists who are developing a regional framework to help the Jonah Interagency Reclamation and Mitigation Office (JIO) with decisions about allocating the mitigation funds.

The JIO considers proposals from various conservation organizations seeking financing. The JIO includes representatives from the Wyoming Department of Environmental Quality, Wyoming Department of Agriculture, Wyoming Game and Fish Department, and the US Bureau of Land Management.

Conservation science

Conservancy scientists are working on a methodology to develop specific conservation goals to be used as guidance for the JIO’s distribution of the Jonah mitigation money.

Joe Kiesecker, the conservancy’s lead scientist in Wyoming, said similar methodology eventually might be applied to other regional fields.

“Mitigation of energy development can no longer be an afterthought. Before development occurs, industry needs to look at the site and plan to avoid sensitive areas,” Kiesecker said.

Oil companies are uncomfortable agreeing to finance offsite mitigation without a plan guiding the mitigation, he said.

BP invited the conservancy’s involvement in Jonah field, he said. Since 1978, BP and its affiliates have contributed $8 million to the conservancy.

Scientists say Jonah gas field drilling has disturbed sage grouse and their breeding habitat. Photo by Joe Kiesecker, Nature Conservancy.
Click here to enlarge image

For Jonah, scientists used information from environmental impact statements and looked at lists of biological targets. They overlaid species-specific habitat maps with maps of Jonah field.

The process is aimed at setting goals for the number and distribution of conservation targets in specific areas.

An important factor of offsite mitigation is the method of selecting suitable offset sites. Scientists used a Marxan model to select areas representing the biology of Jonah field.

Marxan is a tool for landscape conservation analysis that explicitly incorporates spatial design criteria into site selection.

The scientists acquired and developed maps of the species and habitat identified on Jonah. The species are the burrowing owl, cedar rim thistle, mountain plover, pronghorn, pygmy rabbit, sage grouse, sage sparrow, white-tailed prairie dog, and Wyoming big sagebrush.

The species-habitats information was plugged into the Marxan model. Scientists also used predictive models to estimate the acreage of impacted habitat and to search for suitable offset sites for mitigation.

BLM decision

The BLM issued a Jonah infill drilling project record of decision in March 2006 following analysis of a final environmental impact statement. The FEIS analysis said onsite mitigation efforts were inadequate.

That decision resulted in the formation of mitigation funds.

The BLM said site-specific mitigation measures can be applied throughout a project.

Upon completion, all wells would be plugged and abandoned, surface facilities would be removed, and remaining disturbed areas (with the exception of certain road improvements) would be reclaimed and revegetated, a BLM document said.