Identifying Disturbance Mechanisms Influencing Habitat Selection by Elk in Natural Gas Development Fields

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Project Background Information: The 123,000 acre Fortification Creek Area (FCA) in northeastern Wyoming provides year-round habitat to a geographically isolated prairie population of 250 Rocky Mountain elk and lies within the Powder River Basin, an area rich in hydrocarbon resources including coal and coalbed methane natural gas (CNBG). Because habitat is restricted, recent plans to develop the CBNG resources in the FCA are cause for concern. To better understand the effects of CBNG development and to develop appropriate mitigation measures, the Bureau of Land Management would like to develop a research study to identify the disturbance mechanisms (e.g., noise and traffic volume) that may lead to elk avoidance of areas undergoing energy development. Additional opportunities for this study are to (i) evaluate the effects of phased development, where CBNG development will be restricted to a third of the FCA until the entire FCA is developed in thirds, giving elk options to avoid development disturbances, (ii) provide a pre-development temporal perspective of habitat selection through comparing study data to radio-telemetery data collected in the FCA in 1992–2000 and 2005–2007, and (iii) compare elk locational data in the FCA to locations of elk from a study evaluating the effects of deep oil and gas development on elk habitat selection near Big Piney in western Wyoming (2000–2002). A fundamental purpose of this proposed research is to provide managers with information to (i) plan future CNBNG development projects to minimize disturbances, and (ii) restore habitat functionality through reducing or removing the disturbance factors that lead to avoidance of areas undergoing energy development. C. Project Objective: The study will help protect elk habitat while allowing for the orderly development of energy resources on public land. The primary resource challenge addressed by our project is the influence of oil and gas development on elk habitat effectiveness. In other studies, elk and mule deer have avoided areas undergoing oil and gas development, which have negatively affected population demographic parameters. Our primary research hypothesis is that activities associated with oil and gas development such as traffic volume and noise are mechanisms that disturb elk and other wildlife, causing them to avoid areas near oil and gas developments, which reduces the effectiveness of habitats. Through our research we will evaluate the influence of these disturbance mechanisms on elk habitat selection, thereby elucidating the overall influences on habitat effectiveness. Identifying which mechanisms most influence elk habitat selection as well as the temporal and spatial aspects whereby these mechanisms influence habitat selection will provide managers with essential information that can be used to make future energy developments more compatible with wildlife as well as provide information that will be useful in restoring habitat effectiveness to areas that have been developed for oil and gas resources.

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