Briefs

Questar

The public comment period on Questar's proposal for year-round drilling on multiple-well pads on the Mesa will soon begin. Bill Lanning of the Bureau of Land Management announced that the scoping process will begin in mid-July and continue through the first week in August. The agency schedule calls for a final environmental analysis and decision in early November.

Erramouspe Road

The Sublette County Commission agreed last week to have the Budd-Falen law firm file a notice of appeal in the federal court over the adverse decision in the Erramouspe Road dispute with the Bureau of Land Management.

The commission has also requested that the Budd-Falen case file be turned over to Sublette County Attorney Van Graham for his review. In comments last week, the commission anticipated Graham will take over the appeal.

Elk feedgrounds

While the Wyoming Brucellosis Task Force continues its discussions and the Wyoming Game and Fish Department works with livestock producers in discussing ways to reduce the possibility of disease transmission from feedground elk to cattle, the National Wildlife Federation has taken on its own task. The national organization has hired a Wyoming firm called Western EcoSystems Technology Inc. to study Wyoming's 22 elk feedgrounds. The study's purpose is to "identify feedgrounds where there may be opportunities to distribute elk onto native ranges without a reduction in elk numbers or increasing risks of brucellosis transmission to livestock." Each feedground will be ranked whether it has a high, medium or low opportunity for closure.

Researchers will also consider land ownership in the areas near the feedgrounds and "will specifically focus on those solutions geared towards acquisition of native ranges." The group hopes to have its report completed by mid-August.