Ken Collins: Hypocrisy, maybe?
Tuesday, December 11, 2012
Wolf Mountain Ranch said it cares about the eagles and grouse, and about its conservation easements. That’s why the ranch had to build a road and prepare an oil well pad site before the necessary county permits were approved. All future homebuilders should take note of this great excuse.
Wolf Mountain Ranch’s conservation easements discourage drilling between March 15 and July 31 for the grouse. Bald eagle activity discourages disturbance between Nov. 15 and Feb. 28. Does this situation not make one wonder why there are drilling permits so close to easements and nesting birds in the first place?
To be so “concerned” yet still willing to construct, drill, transport hundreds of water trucks and chemical trucks, create noise and toxic fumes, degrade roads and all the other negatives seems a lot like hypocrisy. Wolf Mountain Ranch benefited from getting the conservation easements and then it turns around and carries on non-conservation business interfering with those very easements. The ranch owners want it both ways.
All ranchers and their neighbors ought to investigate closely before they decide to allow “fracking” on their land. Fracking companies are very willing to tell folks about the economic benefits of having wells on their property. They seem to be much less willing to tell property owners about the huge lifestyle and environmental negatives that come with it.
More like this story
- Routt County commissioners to decide on permit for third oil well on Wolf Mountain west of Steamboat Springs
- Wolf Mountain builds access to new oil well before permit OK'd
- Wolf Mountain purchase of development rights plan emerges
- PDR group looks at balancing conservation easements, oil and gas exploration
- Oil well on Wolf Mountain shifts to fracking
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