Online Messenger #180
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Friends,
Western Watersheds Project is well known for its ability to litigate bad management decisions by the Forest Service, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and the Bureau of Land Management. With our partners at Advocates for the West and many other conservation groups, WWP has a remarkable history of legal success that has catalyzed long-needed changes in management that will protect western watersheds and wildlife.
However, Western Watersheds Project is not a one dimensional group.
Over the last several months Western Watersheds Project entered into talks with Ruby Pipeline LLC (Ruby), a subsidiary of El Paso Corporation, that has expressed interest in investing in meaningful ecological mitigation measures for its planned 680 mile Ruby natural gas pipeline to be built from Opal, Wyoming to Malin, Oregon.
After much thoughtful negotiation, Western Watersheds Project and Ruby Pipeline, LLC have struck a deal establishing the Sagebrush Habitat Conservation Fund with a mission of buying and retiring federal grazing permits that are voluntarily offered. The Fund will receive $15,000,000 from Ruby over ten years. In return WWP has agreed not to litigate or seek delay in the construction of the Ruby pipeline.
Western Watersheds Project is confident that the Sagebrush Habitat Conservation Fund will prove to be part of a major shift in the way western public lands are managed. Having the financial support of a major American corporation will help shift the discussion about public lands ranching and help accomplish WWP’s mission to protect and restore western watersheds and wildlife.
Here is a link to the joint Ruby/WWP/ONDA News Release:
