Post by L Roebuck on Mar 5, 2009 20:48:32 GMT -5
Plan for Oil and Gas Drilling on Monongahela National Forest Jeopardizes Spruce Knob-Seneca Rocks National Recreation Area, Threatens Bat Populations Already Suffering From Deadly White-nose Syndrome
Conservation groups filed an official protest Wednesday against a plan by the U.S. Forest Service and the Bureau of Land Management to auction off oil and gas leases on a sensitive area of the Monongahela National Forest. The proposed project is located in the Seneca Creek/Brushy Run area near the town of Onego. Part of the area to be drilled lies within the Spruce Knob Unit of the Spruce Knob-Seneca Rocks National Recreation Area.
“Oil and gas drilling on the Monongahela National Forest, in combination with white-nose syndrome, presents a serious threat to the survival of the Virginia big-eared and Indiana bats,” said Mollie Matteson, conservation advocate with the Center for Biological Diversity. “Drilling and disease are a one-two punch that could spell the absolute end of these bats.”
The conservation groups are concerned about the impacts the oil and gas drilling will have on bats, including the federally listed, endangered Indiana bat and Virginia big-eared bat. The largest winter hibernation site in the world for the Virginia big-eared bat, Hellhole Cave, lies just a few miles east of the project site, on private land. The same cave is a major hibernating site for the Indiana bat. Late last month, lab results confirmed that white-nose syndrome, a disease that has been killing off bat populations throughout the Northeast United States, has now reached West Virginia. Both the proposed oil and gas drilling sites and the disease-stricken caves are in Pendleton County.
Full Release
Conservation groups filed an official protest Wednesday against a plan by the U.S. Forest Service and the Bureau of Land Management to auction off oil and gas leases on a sensitive area of the Monongahela National Forest. The proposed project is located in the Seneca Creek/Brushy Run area near the town of Onego. Part of the area to be drilled lies within the Spruce Knob Unit of the Spruce Knob-Seneca Rocks National Recreation Area.
“Oil and gas drilling on the Monongahela National Forest, in combination with white-nose syndrome, presents a serious threat to the survival of the Virginia big-eared and Indiana bats,” said Mollie Matteson, conservation advocate with the Center for Biological Diversity. “Drilling and disease are a one-two punch that could spell the absolute end of these bats.”
The conservation groups are concerned about the impacts the oil and gas drilling will have on bats, including the federally listed, endangered Indiana bat and Virginia big-eared bat. The largest winter hibernation site in the world for the Virginia big-eared bat, Hellhole Cave, lies just a few miles east of the project site, on private land. The same cave is a major hibernating site for the Indiana bat. Late last month, lab results confirmed that white-nose syndrome, a disease that has been killing off bat populations throughout the Northeast United States, has now reached West Virginia. Both the proposed oil and gas drilling sites and the disease-stricken caves are in Pendleton County.
Full Release