Appeal filed in Badger-Two Med case. Could Marias Pass be industrialized?

By CHRIS PETERSON

Hungry Horse News

The Pikuni Traditionalist Association announced earlier last week that it would appeal a federal judge’s ruling that would allow a Louisiana based company to drill for oil and gas in the Badger-Two Medicine region.

Earlier this year Washington, D.C. District Court Judge Richard Leon ordered the Forest Service and the Bureau of Land Management to reinstate a lease held by the Solenex Corp.

The 6,200 acre lease is in the heart of the Badger-Two Medicine and encompasses ground not only considered sacred by the Blackfeet Tribe, but is also popular with local hunters and hikers alike, as it includes a wide swath of land along Two Medicine Ridge and runs all the way down to Sawmill Flats, a popular camping and fishing area.

According to a 1990 environmental impact statement, the preferred alternative would build more than 5 miles of road from what is now the False Summit Trailhead to the well site on the northeast side of Two Medicine Ridge, which is prime elk and deer habitat.

That would include building a bridge over the South Fork of the Two Medicine River, a coveted native westslope cutthroat trout stream.

The wellhead, if drilled, would be less than 2.75 miles from the boundary of Glacier National Park. According to the EIS, if the well were successful, the oil/or gas would be pumped out on a pipeline to False Summit and a processing facility would be constructed there.

The 1990 EIS, however, claims the project would, in essence, have no longterm impacts on the coveted elk herd there, as well grizzly bears, native fish and other species.

In short, a largely pristine area would be industrialized.

“The Blackfoot Confederacy, the Rocky Mountain Tribal Leaders Council, which represents tribes across the Montana, Idaho and Wyoming, and the National Congress of American Indians, are all standing together with the Blackfeet Nation. We will never cede sacred ground to those who would defile it. And it’s not just about Indian Country, for decades now, Republican and Democratic administrations have supported a lease-free Badger because the place is important to all the people of Montana,” Tyson Running-Wolf of the PTA said in a release.

Joining the PTA in appealing the lease reinstatement is a coalition of conservation groups — Blackfeet Headwaters Alliance, Glacier Two Medicine Alliance, National Parks Conservation Association, The Wilderness Society and Wild Montana.

The well site and associated roads, if built, would be close to or nearly on top of existing trails that lead to the Bob Marshall Wilderness.

The site has never been developed, however, due to agency delays and eventually a cancellation of the lease in 2016 by outgoing Secretary of the Interior Sally Jewell.

Leon in a scathing opinion called the government’s actions “Kafkaesque” in its attempts to squash the lease over nearly 40 years.

In his Sept. 9 ruling, Leon found the lease was granted legally and had gone through the proper environmental reviews.

But members of the Blackfeet Tribe and environmental groups have balked at that assertion. The 1990 EIS — which looks at the Solenex lease and another lease held at the time by Chevron, seems to ignore any of the impacts to big game, fish, or the cultural concerns by Blackfeet Tribal members at the time.

At the time, it also seems to all but ignore the impacts to local businesses in favor of the oil companies.

“The majority of the businesses along the main thoroughfares rely on tourists visiting the area to enjoy the natural beauty,” the EIS concedes. “Any alteration of the scenic beauty or recreational opportunities of the National Forest are viewed as a detriment to their business.”

The Forest Service clearly favored the oil companies. It says as much in the EIS.

“Business people in the oil and gas industry strongly favor oil and gas development on the National Forest. The recent downturn in the oil industry has been a hardship for these business and any renewed interest on the Forest is welcomed. With appropriate monitoring and administrative controls, they feel that development can be made compatible with the other uses of the National Forest,” the original EIS maintains.

“The Solenex lease was illegally issued and we believe the court decision that reinstated it was wrongly decided. We will continue to advocate for this wild and sacred landscape until the last threat to its integrity is removed,” noted Timothy Preso, an Earthjustice attorney representing the Tribal Association.

Much has changed in the region since 1990 as well. For one, the area used to allow motorized use — the Forest Service does not allow it today and hasn’t for years. Old roads are largely brushed in or have been converted to trails.

For example, the original EIS talks about using an existing Jeep trail. Today, the trail is a hiking path.

In addition, laws have been passed to protect the entire Rocky Mountain Front from any new oil and gas leases and almost all the old existing leases have either been relinquished voluntarily by companies or bought out.

Solenex, quite literally, is one of the last remaining.

“Drilling in prime grizzly bear and elk habitat and within a Traditional Cultural District makes no sense morally, environmentally, or economically and never will. Just as we helped other leaseholders reach retirement solutions that kept the land and their companies whole, we remain committed to exploring reasonable settlement options with Solenex,” Peter Metcalf, executive director for Glacier-Two Medicine Alliance said.

The case has also drawn concerns from Montana Sen. Jon Tester, who has previously suggested the lease problem could be handled by an act of Congress.