Wyoming Wildlife Federation (WWF) Thanks Gov for Sportsmen for Responsible Energy (SFRED) Help

(National Wildlife Federation)

Nine Wyoming newspapers in June ran a thank you advertisement from sportsmen and women to Wyoming’s Governor Freudenthal. “We chose the timing of the advertisement to coincide with the Western Governor’s Association (WGA) meeting,” said Public Lands Organizer Daly Edmunds. Governor Freudenthal is chairman of WGA.

With the heads of 19 states and 3 Pacific island territories in Jackson, Wyoming to discuss regional topics affecting the West, Wyoming Wildlife Federation (WWF) wanted to make sure that the Governor received its thanks, and that sportsmen’s interests were noted. WWF’s goal was to bring sportsmen together from all over the state, to speak with one voice, and thank the Governor for his efforts to have energy development conducted responsibly in Wyoming.

In the end, WWF had 82 endorsements from a wide range of businesses (butchers, taxidermists, retail shops, outfitters, gunsmiths), sportsmen’s groups (local, statewide, and national), and professional organizations.

“When we see stipulations in federal documents such as ‘Wildlife habitat would generally only be protected if a mineral commodity is not present for extraction,’ we become really concerned,” Edmunds said. “We can have both ... in fact, Wyoming needs to have both. That is why we are also active at the federal level, as a member of the moderate and sensible coalition—Sportsmen for Responsible Energy Development (SFRED).”

WWF looked carefully at this coalition and decided it was something it could really get behind, and something that it needs to get behind. WWF is joined by businesses, organizations, and individuals who want to strike a balance between energy development and wildlife conservation in the West.

With guidance from Mike Dombeck, former Chief of the U.S. Forest Service and Director of the U.S. Bureau of Land Management, and John Baughman, former Director of the Association of Fish and Wildlife Agencies and Wyoming Game and Fish Department, this coalition recently released a set of science-based, sportsmen’s recommendations for responsible energy development.

Read the Sportsmen for Responsible Energy full report:  Recommendations for Responsible Oil and Gas Development

Some of the recommendations include: 
• reaffirm multiple-use management of federal

lands to sustain fish, wildlife and water resources,

• strengthen the process used to lease public lands

and permit oil and gas development for the protection

of fish, wildlife and water resources; and

• implement new measures for monitoring the

effects of oil and gas development.