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Tell BLM: Cancel oil and gas leases in Park County, Montana
Join us in telling Secretary of the Interior Ryan Zinke to remove the Park County leases from BLM's March Lease Sale.
On March 13, 2018 the Bureau of Land Management (BLM)’s Butte Field Office will auction 63,496 acres of of land throughout Montana. As local residents, landowners and businesses, we are especially concerned about the lands up for auction near Livingston: they border the city of Livingston, the Yellowstone River, and form the scenic backdrop for our community’s historic downtown. Allowing industrial development and fracking of these critical lands could negatively impact our public health, economy, private property and way of life.
To: Secretary of the Interior Ryan Zinke, U.S. Interior Department
Manager Scott Haight, U.S. Bureau of Land Management, Butte Office Field Office
State Director Jon Raby, U.S. Bureau of Land Management, Montana-Dakotas State Office
CC: Governor of Montana Steve Bullock, Helena Montana
Re: March 13, 2018 Oil and Gas Lease Sale, Butte Field Office
Dear Secretary Zinke:
We, the undersigned businesses, landowners, individuals and organizations write to express our concern about the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) Butte Field Office March 13, 2018 Oil and Gas Lease Sale. Of the 63,496 acres of land up for auction throughout Montana, the 4,307 acres in Park County are particularly concerning; not only do they form the scenic backdrop to historic downtown Livingston, but they are directly adjacent to our community and the lifeblood of our local economy: the Yellowstone River.
As Livingston residents, we are alarmed by the proximity of possible industrial scale hydraulic fracking activities immediately adjacent to our community. These lands are near community schools and the new $43.5 million hospital. The Blue Ribbon Yellowstone River fishery attracts visitors from all over the world and is key to our local economy. These lands are the backdrop of our historic downtown, which you will recognize as the set for numerous movies including “A River Runs Through It”. Just as important, many of the lands to be leased are on privately-owned ranches and homesites where landowners own the land but not the mineral rights. Allowing industrial development and fracking of these critical lands could negatively impact our public health, economy, private property and our way of life. Our community does not approve of oil and gas development on these important lands -- not now, or ever.
Simply stated, this is not the place for oil and gas development.
The diverse group of undersigned residents urge you to cancel the 4,307 acres of new oil and gas leases in Park County. Please withdraw these lands from the March 13th Lease Sale. Leasing this land for oil and gas development will undermine private property rights and is certainly not the best or highest use of our Nation’s public lands. If you contact the undersigned, we are sure you will agree.