Ferret’s habitat part of land lease auctioned for oil and gas exploration
Habitat for one of the rarest mammals in North America was among nearly 155,000 acres of federal land in Colorado leased Thursday for energy development.
The state office of the Bureau of Land Management sold oil and gas leases on about 13,902 acres in northwest Colorado, where black-footed ferrets have been released to restore the animal to the state.
The program is one of several federal-state efforts to bring back the weasel-like animal thought to be extinct until a colony was found in western Wyoming in the 1980s.
“They’re gambling with the future of the program and the future of ferrets,” said Josh Pollock of the Denver-based Center for Native Ecosystems.
Portions of the 34,563 acres that were up for lease near Rangely are home to ferrets overseen by federal and state biologists. Nine of the 20 parcels in the area were snapped up during the BLM’s quarterly auction, which raised a total of $6.8 million.
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[...] Auction Info Habitat for one of the rarest mammals in North America was among nearly 155,000 acres of federal land in Colorado leased Thursday for energy development. The state office of the Bureau of Land Management sold oil and gas leases on about 13,902 acres in northwest Colorado, where black-footed ferrets have been released to restore the animal to the state. [...]
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