July 28,
2005 - FOR
IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Jeff
Kuyper, Los Padres ForestWatch: 805-252-4277
Pamela
Flick, Defenders of Wildlife: 916-203-6927
Monica
Bond, Center for Biological Diversity: 951-961-7720
OIL DRILLING WILL EXPAND INTO
PRISTINE AREAS OF LOS PADRES NATIONAL FOREST
Forest Service Opens Up
52,075 Acres to New Drilling;
Decision Threatens
Wildlife, Clean Water, Wilderness, and Forest Recreation
Elected officials, business
owners, outdoor recreationists, and conservation groups
criticized the U.S. Forest Service today for opening
critical tracts of wildlands in the Los Padres National
Forest to additional oil and gas exploration and
development. A majority of the activities will be
concentrated north and east of Ventura and Santa Barbara, an
area where more than 1.5 million people visit annually for
recreation and where several threatened and endangered
animals call home, including the critically imperiled
California condor.
Oil
and gas drilling, with associated pipes and transmission
lines, roads, trucks, noise, and toxic emissions, pollutes
the air and water, harms and kills wildlife, fragments
habitat, and spoils recreational opportunities. Yet the
government's own analyses show that the additional drilling
will supply the nation with less than a day's supply of oil
and gas.
"Piru Creek is an area of high
concern, where parts of the watershed fall within the
planned oil and gas developments," noted Gary Bulla, a local
fisherman and business owner who resides just outside the
Los Padres National Forest in Ventura County. "The
biologically rich watershed is beloved by anglers and
hikers, and is home to arroyo toads, California red-legged
frogs, southwestern willow flycatchers, and other animals
and plants dependent upon clean water and healthy streamside
vegetation."
In response to substantial
opposition from the public and State of California, the
Forest Service's final decision will not allow surface
development within roadless areas. While the Forest
Service's final decision is considered to be a victory for
roadless area protection, it will still allow drilling to
occur right up to the boundary of these pristine roadless
areas and could allow directional or "slant" drilling
beneath these sensitive lands. Altogether, the Forest
Service's decision will allow oil and gas drilling in 4,277
acres of the national forest, potentially within close
proximity of four federally designated wilderness areas, the
Sespe Condor Sanctuary, Hopper Mountain National Wildlife
Refuge, and the Wild & Scenic Sespe River.
Critics
worry that the remaining acres proposed for oil and gas
exploration and development include extremely sensitive
ecological areas. The decision will significantly damage
this important habitat for a number of imperiled species -
including one of only four places in the U.S. where
California condors have nested since they were released into
the wild in 1992. In 2002, an adult male condor stuck his
head into a puddle of crude oil and transferred the oil to
his chick, which later died. The chick was the first hatched
in the wild in 18 years.
"Although we are relieved the
Forest Service will not be tearing new roads into the last
wild areas of the Los Padres, we still have concerns about
the final decision," said Congresswoman Lois Capps, from
Ventura and Santa Barbara counties, who recently
reintroduced the Los Padres Conservation Act (H.R. 3149),
which would ban additional drilling in the forest. "Just
because drilling is already occurring in an area does not
mean we should add to the damage. More development might be
out of sight, but not out of mind."
The Forest Service received
nearly 8,000 comment letters on the draft Environmental
Impact Statement to expand oil and gas development on the
Los Padres. Of these comments, an overwhelming majority
expressed strong opposition to the proposal.
"As a local business leader
with over 300 employees who live in the Ventura area and
enjoy the beautiful Los Padres National Forest, we are
concerned about the negative effects of additional drilling
exploration and operations in our local forest - loud test
explosions, toxic pollution from trucks and equipment, and
more unsightly wells - and how that will impact recreation,
natural resources, and our high quality of life," stated
Michael Crooke, CEO of Patagonia, Inc., based in Ventura.
The San Cayetano oil
drilling area northeast of Ojai. This is one of three areas
where the Forest Service will allow oil drilling to expand.
The Forest Service decision
would allow oil and gas exploration and development
activities within three High Oil and Gas Potential Areas -
Sespe, San Cayetano, and South Cuyama - totaling more than
52,000 acres. More than 47,000 acres would be categorized
under the "No Surface Occupancy" stipulation, leaving 4,277
acres vulnerable to exploration and
development. Conservation groups are concerned that impacts
to views, air quality, recreation, and watersheds are not
limited to drilling areas, but often spread into sensitive
areas across a much wider swath of land.
Conservation groups are
considering whether to appeal the Forest Service's
decision. "The agency utterly failed to conduct biologically
and legally defensible analyses about the cumulative effects
of new drilling combined with existing oil and gas
developments in the area," stated Jeff Kuyper, executive
director of Los Padres ForestWatch, a local non-profit
organization that safeguards the Los Padres National
Forest. "Much of the documentation used to support this
decision is based on skewed numbers and outdated economic
figures. It is up to us to make sure that the Forest Service
doesn't auction off the last remnants of the public's wild
heritage for just a few days of oil."
- # # # -
THE COALITION TO SAVE LOS
PADRES:
Californians for Western Wilderness
Campaign for America's Wildlands
Center
for Biological Diversity
Defenders of Wildlife
Environmental Defense
Center
Forests Forever
Los Padres ForestWatch
Sierra
Club - Los Padres Chapter
