Development and conservation go hand in hand in New Mexico

There is no doubt the oil and gas industry is critical to New Mexico’s economy. Our state ranks in the top 10 producers of natural gas and oil in the United States. The industry supports more than 100,000 jobs, which add $12.8 billion to New Mexico’s gross state product, or 14.2 percent of its wealth. In 2016 alone, the industry provided over $1.6 billion for essential state services like schools, road repair and public works.

Yet, while most New Mexicans are aware of the industry’s tremendous economic contributions, the industry’s commitment to conservation and sustainable development rarely gets the attention it deserves. In fact, the oil and gas industry has provided an incredible amount of volunteer natural and cultural resource conservation.

In 2003, a diverse group of stakeholders, including ranchers, oil companies, conservation groups and government agencies, formed a working group to help guide development activities within the shinnery oak-sand sagebrush landscape in southeastern New Mexico. There was a fear that two animals, the lesser prairie-chicken and dunes sagebrush lizard, would become federally protected and cause abundant restrictions on land use.

Working together for nearly three years, the group developed strategies for managing the landscape that would hopefully remove the need to list the animals as threatened or endangered. The Bureau of Land Management (BLM) used the working group strategy to build a management plan, published in 2008, to guide land use and restoration of habitat for both species.

Later that year, BLM, along with the oil and gas industry and U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, crafted a unique conservation tool patterned after the Candidate Conservation Agreement with Assurances (CCAA) for use on federal lands. This established consistency in management and conservation efforts across jurisdictions while providing certainty to industry participants should the species be listed.

By 2017, 73 ranchers and 56 oil companies had voluntarily enrolled, with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, 1.9 million acres of lesser prairie-chicken and dunes sagebrush lizard habitat on BLM leases and another 1.2 million acres of private and state lands. Over $15 million has been raised and applied toward conservation measures and habitat restoration. The efforts led to the dunes sagebrush lizard not needing to be listed as endangered, and although the lesser prairie-chicken was originally listed, the N.M. population is responding very well to restoration efforts.

Conservation doesn’t just apply to land and wildlife. The BLM Pecos District processes hundreds of oil and gas applications to drill annually within the Permian Basin and is one of the busiest offices in the nation. Over time, development in some areas made it difficult to locate projects without harming archaeological sites. Many sites were being lost due to infrastructure maintenance and dune formation. They were also being ravaged by illegal artifact collecting. An alternative to “flag and avoid” the site was needed.

BLM and the New Mexico State Historic Preservation Officer built common ground among archaeologists, managers, tribes and industry resulting in a collaborative approach to balancing energy development and archaeology and establishing a pool of funds that could be used to protect and maintain sites. The fruits of that effort was an improved approach, embodied in an agreement that encompasses 1,700 square miles containing the most active oil and gas areas. Operating under the agreement is voluntary — if a company chooses the agreement procedures, it contributes the cost of the archaeological survey into a mitigation pool.

Since 2008, the oil industry has paid nearly $11 million into the pool. Without the Permian Basin agreement, those funds would have been spent on thousands of indiscriminate surveys. Instead, the pool has built a comprehensive field program, providing millions of dollars for archaeological research and studies that provide a foundation for understanding and managing the area’s archaeological resources.

As BLM, the oil and gas industry, land owners, organizations and other agencies have demonstrated over the past few decades, New Mexico works best when people and stakeholders collaborate to provide long-term economic vitality, conserve our beautiful working landscapes and rich culture, and restore healthy habitats. Working together, side-by-side, oil and gas, government and conservationists can continue to see that New Mexican’s enjoy the benefits of our lands and resources for generations to come.

Jesse Juen, who spent 33 years in public service, retired from the Bureau of Land Management as director for New Mexico, which included overseeing issues in New Mexico, Texas, Kansas and Oklahoma. He lives in Albuquerque.