JACKSON - The news is not that oil and gas development is ramping up throughout the state. Instead, the news is that the Wyoming Game and Fish Department is increasingly taking notice.

The department itself has mapped projections for oil and gas development across the state, and overlapped those projections with wildlife habitat, showing a grim picture for wildlife's future.

"This has really gotten our attention," said Vern Stelter, statewide habitat protection coordinator for Game and Fish. "Obviously, we're very focused on this as a department, trying to moderate impacts as much as we can."

The agency has highlighted areas including the Powder River Basin, Jonah and Pinedale Anticline fields, Moxa Arch, Continental Divide and Atlantic Rim areas, which are projected to see increases of up to 10 times more oil and gas wells. Sage grouse and big game are identified as primary users of habitat eyed by energy.

The department is working with energy companies and the Bureau of Land Management - the primary public lands agency permitting the energy development - to minimize impacts to wildlife, Stelter said.

"We're not downplaying the impact on wildlife," he said. "It's going to be significant in all of those areas. No doubt about it, we're going to take a hit, but we hope we're going to take less of a hit than we have to."

Scott Covington, staff terrestrial biologist for Game and Fish, said the department's position is "to try to maintain as much of our fish and wildlife resources as we can" in the face of booming energy development.

It has certainly been an uphill battle. On the Pinedale Anticline, mule deer populations have declined by 46 percent in recent years, although it is unclear whether those animals have left the area or are dying. BLM officials have said the numbers will not trigger "adaptive management" techniques until it is clear what has happened to the animals, and why.

"Adaptive management" is a management tool hailed in the energy permitting world as a way to modify development in light of harm to natural resources. Some are skeptical adaptive management is not triggered until it is too late.

Bruce Hinchey, executive director of the Petroleum Association of Wyoming, said his association and energy companies have worked with Game and Fish to lessen impacts.

Still, Hinchey said, whether wildlife are taking a hit is "kind of wait and see."

"There are a lot of efforts going forward for wildlife and habitat mitigation to enhance habitat in other areas close by some of those drilling areas," he said. "I think if you did nothing, there might be a hit, but nothing is not being done. The hit might be a lot less, or may not be anything at all. We have to wait and see."

Hinchey also said oil and gas development has been ongoing in Wyoming for 120 years, and wildlife has done well.

Molly Absolon with the Wyoming Outdoor Council said the argument that development does not affect wildlife "has been proven to be false."

"We need to stop wasting our time debating the question of whether development has a negative effect and begin looking for solutions that will balance the needs of a healthy wildlife population with our demand for energy," Absolon said.

"Oil and gas development has an impact on our wildlife," Absolon said. "We cannot sit back and ignore this fact. We need to make calculated choices about how we approach energy development in order to minimize its negative effects. It's time to consider and accept the costs of protecting our wildlife, which may mean a slower boom, but the alternative will be unacceptable declines in the state's wildlife populations."

What the department's doing

The Game and Fish Department developed a Power Point presentation outlining the development projections, overlapped with wildlife and aquatic habitats, and presented it to the Game and Fish Commission in the last few months.

Stelter said energy companies have responded to the department's concerns.

"You almost have to be involved in the planning process to understand the effort some of these companies are putting in," he said.

The winter drilling proposal for the Pinedale Anticline, for example, expected to be released this month, is something the Game and Fish Department supports in part.

"We don't like it obviously on crucial winter ranges," Stelter said, but it could result in less impact to wildlife over time.

"There is a way to have some winter drilling up on there on the Mesa that will allow industry to develop the rest of their plan in a way that, in total, will be less impact for wildlife," he said. "I think if the plan goes through as it's being worked on now, and it's not done yet, we believe that if we get the components into the plan that we're trying to get that the impact to wildlife will be less in this plan than it will be under the existing plan."

Still, Stelter said some mitigation plans are not "coming" as fast as Game and Fish would like.

"The only reason we can support things like (winter drilling) is if it is a better deal for wildlife in the long run, and a lot of that depends on mitigation the company is willing to do," he said. For example, off-site mitigation is needed, Stelter said.

Getting involved

In recent months, the BLM developed a document outlining "commitments made not yet achieved" for the Jonah and Pinedale Anticline fields. That document showed that in air quality monitoring, along with other commitments, the agency has fallen short.

Stelter and Covington said developing an office like the Jonah Interagency Office - a multi-agency group charged with monitoring the impact of development on the environment - in each major oil and gas area would help make sure there is a balance. That would be possibly beneficial to industry, too, with a full-time staff devoted to a single energy project.

The push-pull between wildlife and energy has played out in Colorado, too, where last week that state's Wildlife Commission considered asking the state to ensure there is a balance in development to protect wildlife, which has economic value.

Overall, Wyoming Game and Fish is "cautiously optimistic" it can strike a balance for wildlife.

"No, we're not comfortable with the amount of impact going on around the state," Stelter said. "It's something Wyoming has not seen before. We're going to feel it, and for a long time. You don't get anywhere screaming and crying - you have to get involved."

Environmental reporter Whitney Royster can be reached at (307) 734-0260 or at royster@tribcsp.com.