| Muddy Creek Coordinated Resource Management Project |
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Objective: To protect, enhance and conserve the Muddy Creek watershed for healthy, sustainable use of natural resources for wildlife, livestock, energy, and recreation
The Muddy Creek Coordinated Resource Management Project was established in 1991. The project brought together local ranchers, environmental groups, local government, and a long list of federal and state agencies under the leadership of the Little Snake River Conservation District and the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) District Office. The initial goals of the project included:
Challenges/constraints: In order to avoid conflict, the Muddy Creek CRM project didn't address several contentious but important issues, including a predator management plan and a comprehensive travel plan for the area's road network. On the other hand, coalbed methane development may very well represent a challenge that is beyond the scope of a local collaboration, no matter how cohesive. Update: Muddy Creek
Yet in the Muddy Creek watershed -- a 500,000-acre area where state and federal land managers, ranchers and environmentalists have worked together for 10 years under what's known as the Muddy Creek Coordinated Resource Management project -- the rangeland is holding its own against the drought. Even with some streams drying up for the first time on record last summer, grasses and plants in many places fared better than anyone might have expected, says Larry Hicks of the Natural Resource Conservation District in Baggs, Wyoming. Hicks is one of those responsible for shepherding the CRM project through the past decade. The CRM group, started in 1991 with help from Wyoming's Department of Agriculture, has focused on improving grazing land shared by cattle, elk, deer, and antelope, as well as fish habitat in Muddy Creek. Ranchers have opted to spend more time moving cattle around, reducing the duration that a herd grazes on a pasture, and leaving it to rest once the herd has moved on. Creative water developments, including stock tanks built from giant tires and pits along roads designed to collect runoff, keep cattle out of creek bottoms, allowing willows to grow and the stream channel to deepen, providing shade and cool water for fish. Prescribed burning has opened up crowded sagebrush stands to new aspen growth and road improvements have reduced erosion into Muddy Creek. One of the most recent milestones is the reintroduction of Colorado River cutthroat into a Muddy Creek tributary in the fall of 2001. The native fish have gained a foothold, and the group now plans to release more fish into the remainder of the Muddy Creek drainage over the next several years. Most of the goals outlined in the CRM group's infancy are complete, says Hicks, and the group's project is moving from the "getting-it-implemented phase to the monitoring phase." But it's been nearly two years since the group's last meeting. Like many collaborative efforts throughout the West that have come full circle from start-up to successfully completed projects, the Muddy Creek CRM is at a critical juncture. "Do you go on in perpetuity," asks Hicks, "or do you sit back and monitor the progress of what you've put in place?" STICKY BUSINESS While Hicks and other CRM members laud the group's accomplishments, they also offer some critical insights into why its plans have worked. The Muddy Creek CRM, like other collaborative groups in the region, cut its teeth on small-scale and relatively non-contentious projects. Hicks says the group tended to skirt around the issues that might drive them apart. Andy Warren, a BLM range conservationist who worked closely with the Muddy Creek CRM, agrees. "We were able to agree on things like improvements to roads and closing dual roads that went to the same place," says Warren. But, he says, the group never took up a broader discussion about a comprehensive travel plan that could lead to more road closures. Everyone agrees that if the group plans to continue, its members will have to take on some prickly issues. "The easy issues left out there are peripheral and insignificant,'' says Hicks.
Coalbed methane, a form of natural gas, is extracted by pumping water from shallow coal seams, allowing the gas to flow to the surface, where it's compressed and collected via a network of pipelines. In many areas, the water is spilled onto the surface land, eventually running into steams and rivers. But in the Muddy Creek area, the water is pumped back underground because it's too salty. The development not only brings well pads, pipelines, and noisy compressor stations, but also a network of roads and power lines, increased traffic, and the spread of noxious weeds. "CBM transcends every resource parameter," says Hicks. "Everyone knows it needs to be dealt with." CAN THE CRM BE KICK-STARTED? Hicks says that, although he'll participate in any ongoing work of the CRM, he isn't the one to lead the charge: "I'm burned out." When Hicks signed on with the Natural Resources Conservation District, the Muddy Creek was his primary responsibility. Now he oversees seven other areas. Norm Vigil, the former district conservationist with the Natural Resources Conservation Service in Baggs, who worked closely with Hicks and Warren, also moved on to a position in northern New Mexico. Leadership by Hicks and Vigil wasn't the only driving force behind the group's success, but it's clear that the success depended on the heavy lifting provided by the land management agents. Hicks says he's skeptical that the same approach that worked for site-specific grazing and restoration projects can work for coalbed methane issues. "When you're dealing with small, individual businesses (like ranches), it's easy to come to consensus, because the CEO is sitting across the table from you," says Hicks. Coalbed methane is a different game, involving any number of companies and individuals, from mineral lease holders to drilling companies to production companies. It's not unusual for mineral leases to be traded repeatedly, like candy on the day after Halloween, making it difficult to build any long-term relationships and trust. But no one has called it quits. CRM member Barbara Parsons, a board member for the statewide environmental organization, the Wyoming Outdoor Council, says that the group needs to move beyond its reluctance to bring someone in from the outside. "Maybe an outside facilitator can help us move things forward," she says. Warren of the BLM also says that a facilitator might steer the group toward issues it has avoided. Both Parsons and Warren agree that the group needs to expand in size to include more stakeholders if it plans to take on these bigger issues. Says Warren, "This group could continue to influence the decisions that are being made." For more information see: EPA-Muddy Creek Coordinated Resource Management Project
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| Last Updated ( Wednesday, 19 March 2008 ) | |||||||||||
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