Just days after Bridger-Teton National Forest officials announced the start of a new environmental analysis for 44,700 acres in the Wyoming Range, an energy company has proposed a plan to drill on part of the contested land.

Officials with Stanley Energy of Denver have proposed 181 wells on roughly 29,000 acres west of Merna in the Horse Creek and Beaver Creek drainages. The company would exchange current leases for permission to drill on more than 20,000 of the 44,700 contested acres. The proposal would involve eight 50-acre well pads for a total surface disturbance of 400 acres.  

The Forest Service announced plans for a supplemental environmental impact statement on the 44,700 acres Monday after the federal Interior Board of Land Appeals ruled that an earlier National Environmental Policy Act analysis failed to sufficiently analyze impacts to wildlife and the environment.

The 44,700 acres also are included in proposed legislation that would allow the buyout of Wyoming Range leases.

The bill would protect more than 1.2 million acres of the range from future leasing and would allow existing leases to be bought back and the land preserved. It is stuck in the U.S. Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources.

Former U.S. Sen. Craig Thomas conceived the bill, and Sen. John Barrasso introduced the Wyoming Range Legacy Act of 2007 late last year.

Daniel outfitter Gary Amerine said Stanley Energy’s proposal would severely damage the business of one of his colleagues, Dustin Child, who runs a hunting camp within sight of several proposed well sites.

“One of the well pads is going to be pretty close to the end of the road where [Child] packs hunters in, and there’s going to be a couple more even closer to his camp,” he said. “It’s going to be a mess.”

“Hunters are going to be very reluctant to hunt with Dustin with that going on,” Amerine said. “Dustin, he borrowed money to do this. This is going to ruin him, absolutely ruin him.”

Amerine said one of his biggest objections to the proposal is the 50-acre size of the well pads, which he said is “totally unheard of.”   

“The impact of that would be dramatic,” he said. “A 50-acre well pad in the forest — the resulting damage would be extensive.”

One hope for stopping the proposal, Amerine said, is the new supplemental environmental impact statement on the land, which is due out in September. He expressed hope that Bridger-Teton Forest Supervisor Kniffy Hamilton would find support from Intermountain Regional Forester Harv Forsgren if she decided to cancel leases on the 44,700 acres.

Bridger-Teton spokeswoman Mary Cernicek said there’s still a chance that those leases could be canceled.

“[Hamilton] is going to have to make a decision on what to do with these 44,700 acres based on the NEPA analysis that comes out,” she said.

The new environmental analysis is the result of a protest from the Wyoming Outdoor Council, The Wilderness Society and the Greater Yellowstone Coalition.

They challenged several lease sales on the land starting in December 2005, saying federal agencies ignored possible effects of energy development on the Canada lynx and air quality that should have been considered in the NEPA analysis. The Canada lynx is protected under the Endangered Species Act.

In early 2006, the Interior Board of Land Appeals denied a motion to dismiss the case and ruled that the analysis was inadequate.