Will Nodak oil boom lead to a duck bust

[fishersofmen]

Interesting artical from the Strib......

CROSBY, N.D. - Not many years ago, this outpost in extreme northwest North Dakota was considered a sleeper assignment by U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service officials. Ducks in particular -- but also sharp-tailed grouse, golden eagles, bitterns, hawks, falcons and countless other species -- were bountiful, nurtured in part by quality habitat on the region's nearly 100 waterfowl production areas.

Offering still more protection to wildlife were thousands of acres of private wetlands and grasslands under federal conservation easement.

Then advances in drilling technology sparked North Dakota's latest oil boom, wildly altering the region's land and people virtually overnight.

Now semitrailer trucks crisscross the region's two-lane roads 24 hours a day, seven days a week, some carrying oil, others fresh or salt water. Often the big vehicles trail long plumes of dust that one county spent $700,000 in unbudgeted funds last year attempting to control, with little success.

Meanwhile, thousands of workers have migrated to the region seeking high-paying jobs with Exxon-Mobil, ConocoPhillips, Haliburton and other companies, many living either in RVs or the many "man camps'' that sprout from farm fields throughout the 14,000-square-mile oil patch.

Feasting, often, on convenience-store favorites Mountain Dew and Hot Stuff pizza, everyone from Bismarck to Bowbells seems on the run, chasing big money. Yet the rush to pump oil from the Bakken Formation encased in shale about 2 miles beneath the Earth's surface seems only just beginning: Almost 7,500 producing oil wells were online in North Dakota in July, a record but a mere fraction of the estimated 50,000 or more that someday might blanket western North Dakota, according to officials.

None of which is good for ducks or other wildlife, including elk, bighorn sheep, mule deer and antelope, in a region whose vitality for millennia has been measured in its unbroken landscape.

"The biggest impact from oil is fragmentation of the countryside,'' said Lloyd Jones, Fish and Wildlife Service manager at Audubon National Wildlife Refuge near Coleharbor, N.D. "We've had contiguous areas of native prairies and grasslands and wetlands up here forever that have provided extremely valuable and richly diverse habitat.

"When you break that up, which is being done now with the expansion of drilling, you change the picture very dramatically for wildlife. And unfortunately, it's all negative. There's nothing positive about it.''

Last year, after considerable delay, and amid widespread speculation that Gov. Jack Dalrymple was withholding it, North Dakota game and fish officials released a thorough study of drilling's possible impacts on a wide range of wildlife. But the state's Legislature hasn't yet followed up with a mitigation plan for resident big game or migratory birds. And a proposed constitutional amendment that would have directed millions in state oil revenue to conservation was derailed this summer when 10 North Dakota State University football players were convicted of election fraud for listing fictitious names on a ballot petition.

For the approximately 8 percent of the prairie pothole region's ducks that nest in the oil patch, the threat is especially untimely.

Already North Dakota and South Dakota are being counted on by wildlife officials to produce ever-greater shares of North America's prairie ducks, because in recent decades Canadian wetlands and other habitat have been drained, burned or plowed.

In the United States, farmers for more than a quarter-century have been paid by the federal Conservation Reserve Program (CRP) to retire marginally tillable land, reduce erosion and increase wildlife habitat. But Canada has had no similar large-scale plan. As a result, much of Canada's prairie duck production has shifted to the Dakotas.

But government budget cuts and record-high commodity prices, together with the advent of genetically modified crops, are prompting many U.S. farmers -- including many in duck-rich North Dakota -- to pull out of CRP and similar programs.

Just this month, North Dakota had a net loss of 642,000 CRP acres that likely will fall to the plow next spring.

'Hard to keep up'

In a nondescript government building just south of Crosby, Fish and Wildlife Service refuge specialist Shea Magstadt spends most of his days thinking, and talking, not about wildlife, which he's trained and paid to do, but about oil and oil drilling.

"I get about 15 e-mails a day I have to respond to that are oil-related,'' Magstadt said. "That's in addition to the phone calls from oil company employees seeking information about where our conservation easements are, or asking other questions, most of it having to do with well placement.''

Located in Divide, Burke and Williams counties, the service's Crosby Wetland Management District, which Magstadt helps oversee, encompasses 17,000 acres of waterfowl production areas (WPAs). Conservation easements on the district total more than 66,000 acres.

Oil companies can't drill on the WPAs. But landowners reserve mineral rights on the easement acres, and wells often rise from them. Additionally, many wetlands outside the WPAs are subject to drilling because North Dakota, unlike Minnesota, has no wetlands protection law.

"An oil 'land man' might call to say his company is thinking about placing a well in the northeast corner of section 7, for example,'' Magstadt said. "So I might look at multiple images of the site trying to determine historical wetland records, then advise the oil company where the [well] pad should go to cause the fewest problems.

"In the end I might say, 'Can we turn the pad this way, or cut a corner off it?' A lot of these companies are willing to work with us. They want to do the best job they can. We've published best-management guidelines for them to use. But all of this is going at an incredible pace. We're understaffed. It's hard to keep up.''

Months can pass between the time construction of a drilling pad begins and a hole is bored about 2 miles beneath the surface, then extended another 2 miles or so horizontally.

Only then is the well "fracked,'' meaning shale containing the oil is cracked under extreme pressure in multiple places using a mixture of water, chemicals and sand. The oil subsequently seeps from the shale and is pumped to the surface, where it's either trucked or carried by pipeline to depots.

Because the fracking occurs so far beneath the surface, it's believed not to be a risk to drinking water in North Dakota, as some say the process has been in other states.

But disturbance caused by the estimated 2,000 to 2,500 trucks needed to build a pad and well and haul the vast amounts of water needed for drilling (some of it is pumped directly from wetlands) is what concerns wildlife managers.

"If birds won't nest within a couple hundred yards of a wind turbine -- and research says they won't -- they sure as hell aren't going to nest near an oil well, especially while it's being built,'' said Mike McEnroe, a retired Fish and Wildlife Service wildlife biologist who represents natural resource professionals at the North Dakota capitol.

Oil spills, McEnroe said -- while perhaps uncommon -- are also a concern, as is disposal of salt water and the mix of sludge that accompanies well drilling.

'Really important'

Kory Richardson manages the 27,000-acre Lostwood National Wildlife Refuge near Kenmere, N.D., which lies not only in the state's oil patch but within the Missouri Coteau, a glacial moraine that extends across North Dakota, northwest to southeast.

Designated a "globally important bird area'' by the American Bird Conservancy, the refuge is home not only to ducks but to threatened species such as the piping plover.

Until recently, Richardson managed Ilo National Wildlife Refuge, also in the North Dakota oil patch, which is entirely surrounded by wells.

"If you communicate with the oil companies early in the process, they'll work with you on well placement,'' Richardson said. "But outside of our [federal] refuges and waterfowl production areas, there's no protection for other lands I'm aware of. This is especially true for small, temporary wetlands that might be filled only in spring or during wet years. Those are really important to birds, ducks in particular.''

Increased funding, much of it from the sale of federal duck stamps, made available recently for additional grassland and wetland easements in the Dakotas will counter some downsides associated with drilling.

"But that will only conserve wetlands and grasslands that already exist, not replace what's being lost,'' McEnroe said.

That's because in the Bakken, federal wildlife officials say, oil money trumps wildlife protection 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

[fishgutz77]

I was out there this spring and it's busy alright, but not unmanagable.

After the drilling ends and all there is, is well heads it will settle down to the pot hole region it's always been.

They need piplines instead of trucks to haul oil that will help.

I just got back from a Cando, ND hunt and it was awesome.

More mallards in that country than anyone has ever seen before as well as honkers.

[Ufatz]

As a direct witness to the oil development in Alaska let me tell you guys something: if you think things are going to be the same "in a few years-when the wells are dry" you are living in a dreamworld. First, you are going to be old men when the field is "done". Second, without a strong commitment by ND's political leaders and aggressive participation by conservation groups the areas not protected now will be trampled in the dust, dirt and drudge of the industry. Remember, more and more of your elected State people are going to end up in the pocket of the industry-not ALL of them, but enough to quietly, subtly change a period here, a comma there, a clause here and a regulation there.

And not only the oil companies are going to impact your favorite old huntin' and fishin' places, but all the armies of non-resident workers and going to be out in YOUR fields, your potholes, your deer woods.

Get out there and enjoy it while you can, because these are the Good Old Days you'll be telling your grand kids about.

Trust me.

[brittman]

Employs many, many people including Minnesotans who would be unemployed or underemployed and losing ground.

Pushes the US closer to energy self reliance. A good thing.

Not in my backyard is simply the wrong answer.

[fishuhalik]

Well, from a guy that's currently working in Williston, I'm gonna give a hearty "heck no."

[icecold]

Just out there this past weekend to visit the inlaws, crazy world out there in ND out of state plates out numbered ND plates I get out to williston about 2 times a year, its changing so fast I hardly reconize places, The buildings and wells are going up so fast cant even keep track, The money out there is just crazy, most of my relatives starting pay is 22-28 a hour they all quit there old jobs and took new ones, no cash flow problems out in that area, come back to minnesota and its food stamp city

[Scott M]

There is no right answer to this issue, as evidenced by people like fishuhalik that need the jobs...Having said that, I still feel like the Dakotas in the last half a decade are going to turn themselves into Minnesota West...a.k.a. Paradise Lost. The rapid expansion of tiled and ditched, row crop agriculture in both states fueled by commodity prices and GMO drought resistant corn and soybeans, as well as the oil boom in North Dakota, will fuel (no pun intended) a huge decline in small game and waterfowl. Get your hunting in now because the times are a-changin'. These will be looked back on as the good old days.

[TylerS]

Oil boom, drought, CRP disappearing, field tile running rampant, and guides leasing up every decent acre left. If you aren't planning to experience North Dakota in the next couple of years, I'd move it way, way up on your bucket list. That way, when your grandkids ask what it was like to hunt for free and shoot a limit of ducks or pheasants, you'll be able to tell them.

Face it: the good-old-days were yesterday. We're on the downward slope. It may sound sort of "sky-is-falling," but I really don't want to say, "I told you so," in 10 years...

[CANOPY SAM]

Just my opinion, but I doubt this change in landscape will have much affect on the "North American" migratory waterfowl population. It may ultimately affect their migratory route slightly thru the Dakotas, if indeed there is some draining and filling-in of wetlands, but beyond that I don't see this affecting much of anything in central and northern Canada..where the majority of the birds are born and raised.

The myriad of agencies that monitor this kind of activity for environmental impact are pretty uptight these days. They're simply not going to allow them to rape and pillage the landscape to the point we see in "The Lorax".

However, will these changes ultimately have some negative impact on big game, and perhaps some upland game? Probably. But a "duck bust"? I highly doubt that.

IMO.

[UMC]

The oil field is mostly outside of the duck factory in ND, but NW ND does produce plenty of ducks and have good duck hunting. The oil field will probably affect ducks the least of all the game species out there, but it will (is) have an impact. Obviously putting oil wells into fields where potholes are/were will have an impact on ducks, along with disturbing nesting cover. Not to mention all the extra noise/traffic and roads being built. Mule deer and upland birds probably stand to be hit the hardest, since they are more sensitive to habitat disturbance and need rather specific terrain that isn't found in a lot of the state.

In response to the comment of agencies making sure the land doesn't get ruined, I wouldn't put much faith in that. They don't seem to be limiting the drilling any more than the oil companies wish to limit it.

[TylerS]

True, ducks need water. But they need grass, too, at least species like mallards and pintails. They often will nest in parcels of grass long distances from standing water. I kicked a nesting hen mallard out of her nest one spring while dog training, and we were a good half mile from a pond or slough.

And you guys are right: the oil drilling might not have a huge impact on nesting ducks overall. But it's one more drop in the bucket, and added to all the other drops (aforementioned CRP and native grass losses, changes in farming practices, drought, etc.), the future doesn't look bright for wildlife, period.

[fishuhalik]

Well guys, I got off work early today and I went for a little drive. I found ducks EVERYWHERE. I ended up setting up in a pothole about 200 yds from an oil rig. Sure didn't bother the ducks! I found a little pothole that was about an acre with 2 little basins that had about 500 mallards & other assorted pothole ducks. Jumped em out, set up 6 dekes and 15 mins later was walking out with my limit of greenheads and a b.e.a.utiful redhead. This was right in the heart of the oil boom area. And I bet there was another 15 ponds that I drove by with the same if not more birds.

[fishuhalik]

Now, if you guys wanna talk about a ruined species, you'd have an argument for the local whitetail, mule deer and antelope populations. They've been absolutely decimated. I think I've seen maybe 10? deer since I started in April. And I've put on literally thousands and thousands of off road miles.

[icecold]

Fishuhalik, I see u work in Williston, do u ever get into the store called Cartunz? . My brother in law owns it,

[CANOPY SAM]

I'm guessing that the majority of big game, particularly whitetails, and maybe even mulies, have gone almost entirely nocturnal in and around the areas with intense human activity. Goats will move many miles very, very quickly. They're really hardy critters.

Keep in mind guys, there's certainly reason to be a little alarmed about this situation, but you also have to realize that wildlife has a remarkable way of adapting to their surroundings.

The initial impact will be kind of scary, and it will seem as though every living critter has vanished from the earth, but they're still there. As was said earlier in the thread, once the dust settles, which it will, the critters will adjust and do just fine.

[fishuhalik]

Icecold, never been there but drive by it all the time. Looks like its doing well, he's got a heck of a nice pickup sitting out front!

Canopy Sam, the deer aren't nocturnal, they're gone. I drive just as much, if not more, at night and I still don't see deer.