Current work in wildlife, rivers, public lands, and climate

Friday, August 26, 2016
Western Groups Respond to Decline in National Park Visitation Due to Oil and Gas Activity

Oil and Gas Activities Negatively Impact More Than Tourism Dollars
Contact: Rebecca Sobel, (267) 402-0724, rsobel@wildearthguardians.org

Santa Fe, NM—A report released Thursday by the Western ValuesProject on the 100th anniversary of the National Park Service found oil and gasdevelopment near national parks is driving away visitors at significant rates.The report highlights visitation trends at five national park units in fourWestern states, and correlates declining visitation to increases in oil and gasdrilling activity near each site.

Chaco CultureNational Historical Park in New Mexico saw visitation decline 43 percentbetween 1993 and 2015 while during that time oil production near the WorldHeritage Site increased by 83 percent, with 3,500 wells completed between 2005and 2007. Local groups are currently in litigation with the Bureau of LandManagement over many of these fracking wells for failing to comply with the NationalEnvironmental Policy Act.

Decline inPark visitation isn’t the only impact nearby communities are feeling due to arampant increase in oil and gas activity. On July 11^, a brand newfracking operation exploded in a fire that burned for days. Fifty-fivecommunity members were evacuated, with some still hospitalized from the effectsof the explosion.

“Fracking wells across the Greater Chaco landscape isclearly bad for tourism, as this study demonstrates. But in addition to drivingout visitors to Chaco Culture National Historical Park, the oil and gasindustry is expelling residents from their homes, and sacrificing public landsfor industry interest. With effects to local health, the economy, and theclimate clearly demonstrated, we hope this report adds to the litany of supportfor reigning in the controversial public lands oil and gas leasing program.”

– Rebecca Sobel, Senior Climate and Energy CampaignerWildEarth Guardians

“It’struly mind-bending that we’ve come to the point where our fracking mania hasdriven us to create energy sacrifice zones that undermine our national parks. Nowhereis this more pertinent than at Chaco Culture National Historic Park, whereNative culture and sacred Native lands are being ravaged by one of thewealthiest industries in the nation.”

-Kyle Tisdel, Western Environmental Law Center

“If NationalParks were America’s best idea, then drilling and fracking in America’sbackyard or anyone’s back yard is America’s worst idea. The Park Serviceis charged withthe trust of preserving the natural resources of America not offering them upto the oil and gas industry for private gain, not to mention destruction of theenvironment and serious health impacts from fracking. After a hundred years of individualand community effort, no administration or agency has the right to squanderthese national treasures. This latest report is troubling and foretells aserious trend which must be stopped.”

– EleanorBravo, Southwest Director of Food & Water Watch

“Tourismis a significant piece of revenue in a stagnant New Mexico economy.Oil and gas extraction hurts the tourism industry because it impairsvisibility, creates airplane engine deafening sound, and has a nasty smell.People on vacation don’t want their senses offended they want beauty andpleasure.”

– Mariel Nanasi, Executive Director, New EnergyEconomy

“Thisconflict points to a formal brokenness and structural absurdity wherein theDepartment of Interior, which is the umbrella for the Bureau of LandManagement, the National Parks Service and the Bureau of Indian Affairs, isforced to negate its own agencies’ missions and historical and economicimperatives, which are internally irreconcilable. These contradictions make amockery of any notional concept of good governance or stewardship of publicresources. The federal bureaucracy’s organization and functioning needs to bereimagined, reconfigured and reconstituted.”

– FrancesMadeson, resident of New Mexico