The U.S. Bureau of Land Management announced plans this week to officially open five parcels in Alabama’s Conecuh National Forest for oil and gas leases. The move prompted an immediate response from the Center for Biological Diversity.
The group wrote in a release…
“Most Americans would agree that Conecuh National Forest is much better off as a forest instead of a bargain barrel gas station for big oil companies,” said Lindsay Reeves, a senior attorney at the Center for Biological Diversity. “It’s maddening that the Forest Service is ignoring the real value of these public lands and willing to industrialize them. These are places where Alabamians can hike, camp and swim. The forest is a fragile, peaceful environment that some of our country’s most imperiled wildlife depend on. We’ll keep fighting to keep oil and gas out of this treasured place.
In February the U.S. Forest Service finalized a plan to leave the entire Conecuh National Forest open to oil and gas drilling. The Center, along with numerous other conservation groups, objected on the grounds that it failed to account for the forest's importance as a global biodiversity hotspot and recreational oasis. It shelters 19 federally protected species, including red-cockaded woodpeckers, Eastern indigo snakes, Escambia map turtles, 300-pound Gulf sturgeon and several mussels that live nowhere else on earth. The Conecuh National Forest also attracts thousands of visitors annually to its world-class hiking trails, lakes, springs and free-flowing rivers.”
Alabama Public Radio newsroom intern Leo Swager reported on concerns over endangered species, including a salamander known as the Black Warrior Waterdog. Tuscaloosa’s black warrior river is home to an endangered species that may be in a “family way” about now. The waterway is one of the few spots where the so called Black Warrior Water Dog is known to live. The salamander’s mating season happened earlier this year. That means the hatchlings may be showing up in the coming weeks.
Our state is considered a model for biodiversity in the U.S. The state is home to plants, animals, and marine life found nowhere else in the country. A 2023 report from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service ranks Alabama third in the nation for endangered species. The study says only Hawaii and California may have more.
The Center for Biological Diversity is defending more than just another threatened Alabama reptile known as the glass lizard. The group just sued the US Fish and Wildlife Service for failing to protect another species. The agency responded to a petition to protect a fish called the coal darter back in late 2023. The Center for Biological Diversity says the service has now violated its legal duty to act on that decision within one year.
The Conecuh is also home to longleaf pine forests, which is considered one of the world’s most endangered ecosystems. These wooded areas once blanketed the Southern coastal plain from Virginia to Texas, but today only 3% remain. Critics complain the plan to allow oil and gas drilling pads, which could include roads to be built throughout the Conecuh, could jeopardize wildlife, degrade recreation and pollute rivers.
The Center for Biological Diversity contends that South Alabama communities are already voicing opposition to a proposed carbon capture and storage project near the Conecuh National Forest that could threaten drinking water and public health. The Conecuh oil and gas proposal, they contend, could further imperil health and safety.
