Tag Archives: Badger-Two Medicine region

Solonex wants accelerated consideration of plans for oil drilling in Badger-Two Medicine

Environmental Issues, News, ,

Another volley in the fight over oil drilling in the Badger-Two Medicine region . . .

A Louisiana company is asking a judge to resolve its lawsuit challenging the government’s suspension of an oil and gas lease near Montana’s Glacier National Park so the company can begin drilling this summer.

The 6,200-acre lease is on land sacred to the Blackfoot tribes of the U.S. and Canada. It was suspended by the U.S. Interior Department in the 1990s along with dozens of other leases in the area.

Over the years, most of the leases were retired or surrendered, and now only 18 remain, covering more than 40,000 acres in the Badger-Two Medicine area south of Glacier.

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See also: Solenex requests accelerated hearing in Badger-Two Medicine drilling case

Blackfeet Nation launches campaign to kill oil leases in Badger-Two Medicine

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The Blackfeet kick it up another notch in their campaign to terminate oil leases in the Badger-Two Medicine region . . .

The Blackfeet Nation is enlisting the help of a member of one of America’s most popular rock bands to help protect a culturally and environmentally significant plot of land on the eastern edge of Glacier National Park.

On April 22, members of the Blackfeet Nation held a press conference to kick off a campaign to rally public support to terminate 18 oil leases within the Badger-Two Medicine. The mountainous area, located between the Blackfeet Reservation, Glacier National Park and the Bob Marshall Wilderness, is an important part of the tribe’s creation story and is known as the “Backbone of the World.”

To help get the word out, the Blackfeet have enlisted the help of Jeff Ament, bass player for Pearl Jam. On Wednesday, Ament posted a message supporting the Badger-Two Medicine effort on the band’s official Facebook page.

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See also: Blackfeet announce legal, social campaign to save Badger-Two Medicine

Blackfeet chief urges President to end oil leases in Badger-Two Medicine

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More tribal pressure to terminate oil leases in the Badger-Two Medicine region. . .

The chief of the Blackfeet Nation has asked President Barack Obama to cancel oil leases in the culturally and environmentally significant Badger-Two Medicine area east of the divide.

Chief Earl Old Person, a member of the Blackfeet Tribal Business Council since 1954, sent a letter to Obama last month asking him to help protect the mountainous area between the Blackfeet Reservation, Glacier National Park and the Bob Marshall Wilderness. He also invited the president to Blackfeet Country to see the area for himself.

The Badger-Two Medicine is an important area in the Blackfeet creation story and is known as the “Backbone of the World.” In 1982, the U.S. government leased land within the Badger-Two Medicine to oil companies and of the 47 land leases originally issued, 18 remain. For years, tribal officials have tried to terminate the leases but in 2013 the final leaseholder, Sidney Longwell of Solenext, LLC, filed a lawsuit so it could begin drilling for oil. No ruling has been made in the case.

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Tester urges feds to cancel oil & gas leases in Badger-Two Medicine

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Sen. Jon Tester is joining the chorus asking for cancellation of oil and gas leases in the Badger-Two Medicine area . . .

U.S. Sen. Jon Tester has joined Blackfeet tribal leaders in their efforts to have all federal oil and gas exploration leases in the Badger-Two Medicine area next to their reservation canceled.

In a letter Friday to Interior Secretary Sally Jewell and Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack, the Montana Democrat said he agreed with the Blackfeet Tribe that Jewell and Vilsack’s departments “clearly have not just the moral obligation but also the legal authority to cancel all existing leases in the Badger-Two Medicine area.”

Tester visited the Blackfeet Reservation earlier this month and discussed the issue with tribal leaders. They maintain that 47 leases in the 165,000-acre area were illegally granted by the Bureau of Land Management and the U.S. Forest Service in 1982.

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Blackfoot Confederacy asks feds to halt leases in Badger-Two Medicine

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The Blackfeet Confederacy has opened a new front in the battle to protect the Badger-Two Medicine region from oil and gas development . . .

In a sign of cultural and political solidarity, tribal chiefs and leaders representing the Blackfoot Confederacy convened Friday to sign a proclamation to end energy development in the sacred Badger-Two Medicine area.

The Confederacy added its voice to an unprecedented alliance of American Indian tribal nations calling on the federal government to resolve decades of wrongdoing by public land managers, and to once and for all protect the Badger-Two Medicine from private industrialization.

Tribes from Montana, Wyoming and the Canadian province of Alberta have issued joint proclamations, insisting that the U.S. Department of Interior cancel illegal oil and gas leases in the Badger-Two Medicine area.

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Frank Vitale: Badger-Two Medicine under threat

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Hello NFPA members:

At our August Board meeting I said I would keep the membership informed about the current status and events of the Rocky Mountain Front Heritage Act as they unfold, and the issues facing the Badger-Two Medicine Roadless Area.

At my request, I asked Bill Walker to post the most current news reports from the Great Falls Tribune, Missoulian, Daily Interlake and the Hungry Horse News. Thanks, Bill. It’s my hope that NFPA members read these articles and become engaged.

The Hungry Horse News, in its Oct. 9, 2013 issue, has a very good article written by Chris Peterson on the pending legal battle over an oil and gas lease within the Badger-Two Medicine. (Bill posted this on the website.)

Various groups are intervening on behalf of the Lewis & Clark NF to help protect the Badger-Two Medicine, which is on the northern portion of the Rocky Mountain Front just south of Glacier NP. The article briefly explains the history of the area and its importance as a vital linkage between Glacier and the Bob Marshall Wilderness complex. One hundred thirty thousand acres of inventoried roadless land is nothing to ignore. A person can travel through the Badger-Two Medicine and the Bob Marshall Wilderness complex approximately 140 miles without crossing a single road. The Badger-Two Medicine was included in the 1980s statewide wilderness bill, but vetoed by then President Ronald Reagan at the request of Senator Conrad Burns (R-Montana).

Many of the folks that have requested intervener status have helped out in our North Fork efforts, and I feel it’s time for us to help out our neighbors. Letters need to be written to the delegation (see contact info below) with copies sent to the Lewis and Clark National Forest in support of protecting the Badger-Two Medicine, and the Rocky Mountain Front Heritage Act as a whole.

As I stated before, things are unfolding fast and this will probably be one of the largest and most important conservation issues facing the Crown of the Continent. And, as a side note – One of the oil and gas companies that is holding out on a buyout just happens to be holding out its lease in the North Fork as well.

The Badger Two Medicine and the North Fork of the Flathead have more in common than you might think. Both adjoin Glacier NP and both are vital wildlife areas connecting linkages east & west, and north & south. Protecting the Badger-Two Medicine is good for the North Fork.

For additional information on the Badger-Two Medicine area, the Glacier-Two Medicine Alliance and its long-time North Fork connection, go to: http://www.conservemontana.org/content/glacier-two-medicine-alliance/cnmF68CE668434B66836.

Please send letters to protect the Badger-Two Medicine and support the Rocky Mountain Heritage Act:

Senator Jon Tester – www.tester.senate.gov
706 Hart Senate Office Building
Washington, DC 20510-2604
Phone: (202) 224-2644

Senator Max Baucus – www.baucus.senate.gov
511 Hart Senate Office Building
Washington, DC 20510
(202) 224-2651

Congressman Steve Daines – www.daines.house.gov
206 Cannon House Office Building
Washington, DC 20515
(202) 225-3211

Supervisor’s Office
Lewis and Clark National Forest – www.fs.usda.gov/contactus/lcnf
PO Box 869
Great Falls, MT  59403

Thanks,

Frank

Environmental groups petition to intervene in Badger-Two Medicine oil & gas lawsuit

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Our friends on the other side of the Divide are not happy about an oil exploration threat to the the Badger-Two Medicine area . . .

Several environmental groups have petitioned to intervene in a legal battle over a disputed oil and gas claim in the Badger-Two Medicine area about two miles southeast of Glacier National Park.

Solonex, a Louisiana-based oil and gas company sued the Forest Service and the Department of Interior claiming it has been illegally prevented from exploring about 6,200 acres of land it leases for oil and gas. Solonex obtained the leases in 1982, but over the years the government continually delayed exploration.In 1998, the government suspended exploration activities there indefinitely. Solonex, which is owned by Sidney Longwell, claims this is a violation of federal law. Congress can allow delays but can’t suspend activities on leased lands indefinitely, Solonex claims.

Late last month, the Blackfeet Headwaters Alliance, based in Browning, and the Glacier-Two Medicine Alliance, headquartered in East Glacier, applied for intervenor status in the lawsuit. The National Parks Conservation Association, Montana Wilderness Association and the Wilderness Society also filed for intervenor status.

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Blackfeet musician Jack Gladstone invites oil company exec to Rocky Mountain Front

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Our colleagues on the Rocky Mountain Front are having a problem with Solenex, an oil outfit based in Lousiana. Solenex is suing the feds to allow oil exploration in the Badger-Two Medicine area. Jack Gladstone came up with a unique way to open a conversation with the company . . .

Blackfeet musician Jack Gladstone has invited a Louisiana oil executive to visit him on the reservation and discuss relinquishing his company’s oil leases south of Glacier National Park.

Gladstone wrote to Solenex Inc. manager Sidney Longwell on Aug. 30, telling him the company’s drilling plans along the Rocky Mountain Front would “violate both the sanctity of this landscape and the treaty rights” of the Pikuni-Blackfeet people…

“Sidney, my home is on the Blackfeet Reservation. I may not have all the amenities of the big city, but a pot of coffee is always on and a meal never far from the stove,” Gladstone wrote. “I invite you to visit me here, to deepen our understanding of each other’s motives and visions regarding the Badger-Two Medicine/Hall Creek wildlands.

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