COALITION
TO SAVE LOS PADRES
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
July 28, 2005
Oil Drilling Will Expand Into Pristine Areas of Los Padres
National Forest
Forest Service Opens Up 4,277 Acres to New Drilling;
Decision Threatens Wildlife, Clean Water, Wild Lands, and Forest
Recreation
Elected officials, business owners, outdoor recreationists, and
conservation groups criticized the U.S. Forest Service today for
opening critical tracts of wildlands in the Los Padres National
Forest to additional oil and gas exploration and development.
A majority of the activities will be concentrated north and east
of Ventura and Santa Barbara, an area where more than 1.5 million
people visit annually for recreation and where several threatened
and endangered animals call home, including the critically imperiled
California condor.
Oil and gas drilling, with associated pipes and transmission lines,
roads, trucks, noise, and toxic emissions, pollutes the air and
water, harms and kills wildlife, fragments habitat, and spoils
recreational opportunities. Yet the government’s own analyses
show that the additional drilling will supply the nation with
only a few days worth of oil and gas.
“Piru Creek is an area of high concern, where parts of the
watershed fall within the planned oil and gas developments,”
noted Gary Bulla, a local fisherman and business owner who resides
just outside the Los Padres National Forest in Ventura County.
“The biologically rich watershed is beloved by anglers and
hikers, and is home to arroyo toads, California red-legged frogs,
southwestern willow flycatchers, and other animals and plants
dependent upon clean water and healthy streamside vegetation.”
In response to substantial opposition from the public and State
of California, the Forest Service’s final decision will
not allow surface development within roadless areas. While the
Forest Service’s final decision is considered to be a victory
for roadless area protection, it will still allow drilling to
occur right up to the boundary of these pristine roadless areas
and could allow directional or “slant” drilling beneath
these sensitive lands. Altogether, the Forest Service’s
decision will allow oil and gas drilling in 4,277 acres of the
national forest, potentially within close proximity of four federally
designated wilderness areas, the Sespe Condor Sanctuary, Hopper
Mountain National Wildlife Refuge, and the Wild & Scenic Sespe
River.
Critics worry that the remaining acres proposed for oil and gas
exploration and development include extremely sensitive ecological
areas. The decision will significantly damage this important habitat
for a number of imperiled species – including one of only
four places in the U.S. where California condors have nested since
they were released into the wild in 1992. In 2002, an adult male
condor stuck his head into a puddle of crude oil and transferred
the oil to his chick, which later died. The chick was the first
hatched in the wild in 18 years.
“Although we are relieved the Forest Service will not be
tearing new roads into the last wild areas of the Los Padres,
we still have concerns about the final decision,” said Congresswoman
Lois Capps, from Ventura and Santa Barbara counties, who recently
reintroduced the Los Padres Conservation Act (H.R. 3149), which
would ban additional drilling in the forest. “Just because
drilling is already occurring in an area does not mean we should
add to the damage. More development might be out of sight, but
not out of mind.”
The Forest Service received nearly 8,000 comment letters on the
draft Environmental Impact Statement to expand oil and gas development
on the Los Padres. Of these comments, an overwhelming majority
expressed strong opposition to the proposal.
“As a local business leader with over 300 employees who
live in the Ventura area and enjoy the beautiful Los Padres National
Forest, we are concerned about the negative effects of additional
drilling exploration and operations in our local forest –
loud test explosions, toxic pollution from trucks and equipment,
and more unsightly wells – and how that will impact recreation,
natural resources, and our high quality of life,” stated
Michael Crooke, CEO of Patagonia, Inc., based in Ventura.
The Forest Service decision would allow oil and gas exploration
and development activities within three High Oil and Gas Potential
Areas – Sespe, San Cayetano, and South Cuyama – totaling
more than 52,000 acres. More than 47,000 acres would be categorized
under the “No Surface Occupancy” stipulation, leaving
4,277 acres vulnerable to exploration and development. Conservation
groups are concerned that impacts to views, air quality, recreation,
and watersheds are not limited to drilling areas, but often spread
into sensitive areas across a much wider swath of land.
Conservation groups are considering whether or not to appeal of
the Forest Service’s decision. “The agency utterly
failed to conduct biologically and legally defensible analyses
about the cumulative effects of new drilling combined with existing
oil and gas developments in the area,” stated Jeff Kuyper,
Executive Director of Los Padres ForestWatch, a local non-profit
organization that safeguards the Los Padres National Forest. “Much
of the documentation used to support this decision is based on
skewed numbers and outdated economic figures. It is up to us to
make sure that the Forest Service doesn’t auction off the
last remnants of the public’s wild heritage for just a few
days of oil.”
For more information, please refer to the attached fact sheets
(PDF format).
– # # # –
• Californians for Western Wilderness •
Campaign for America’s Wilderness •
• Center for Biological Diversity • Defenders of Wildlife
• Forests Forever •
• Los Padres ForestWatch • Sierra Club – Los
Padres Chapter •