Star-Tribune Editorial Board

It's encouraging to see state wildlife officials reach a compromise with a company over its plans to build a plant that would affect critical winter range for elk.

The agreement, which still needs to be approved by the Wyoming Board of Land Commissioners when it meets Thursday, is of vital importance to the state for several reasons.

Cimarex Energy Co. of Denver wants to build a $100 million natural gas processing plant on school trust land in Sublette County. The facility would also become the largest carbon sequestration project in the world.

It's precisely the type of plant Wyoming officials have been trying to recruit. The plant could help serve the nation's energy needs by processing natural gas, while lowering the volume of carbon dioxide emissions.

The plant would also have a significant economic impact. While it would only generate an estimated $19,000 annually for the state's school trust fund, it would mean about $24 million in severance taxes for the state each year.

Unfortunately, the company's optimal site for the project is along the Wyoming Range Front in the Riley Ridge area. It includes crucial winter range for about 200 elk, the largest wintering elk herd in the county. An alternative site suggested by the Wyoming Game and Fish Department, which opposed the location, was rejected by Cimarex.

Wyoming is providing so much of the nation's energy needs, it has earned the right to decide whether a location should be off-limits to any type of development that would be harmful to a native species.

In June, the Board of Land Commissioners - chaired by Gov. Dave Freudenthal - decided it wouldn't issue a special use permit for the project. Instead, the board asked the Office of State Land and Investments to analyze the project. Meanwhile, Game and Fish officials began negotiating with Cimarex, as the board directed.

Fortunately, those talks resulted in a compromise that benefits both the state and the company. The stipulations should serve as a model for future agreements whenever wildlife management and industrial plans clash.

Cimarex has agreed to pay $1.5 million into a mitigation fund. The money will be used for damage prevention if the plant displaces the elk, for radio collars to help determine the impact on the animals, and for elk habitat enhancement in a defined area.

The stipulations prohibit site preparation and construction from Nov. 15 to April 30 in the elk critical winter range. Employers and contractors also would not be allowed to carry firearms to or from the site.

One provision that could be strengthened requires the mandatory reprimand or dismissal of employees convicted of unlawfully taking wildlife while employed by Cimarex or while on company property. Dismissal should be the company's only option for workers convicted of such an offense.

With that change, the agreement should be approved by the state board. The pact sends an important message to companies that the state will do everything it can to protect the wildlife in its care.

A compromise over elk habitat benefits both Wyoming and a company that wants to build a $100 million plant.

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