Forest Service reviews planned energy drilling

BOISE — The U.S. Forest Service is drafting a plan to lease areas of the Caribou National Forest and Curlew National Grassland along Idaho's southeastern border for oil and gas exploration.

The agency is reviewing potential lease sites on the forest's 970,000 acres in Idaho and 17,000 acres that extend into Wyoming and Utah.

There are no known petroleum deposits in Idaho. Every test well drilled in the state over the past 25 years has come up dry, but as gas prices and available resources become scarce, energy companies are hoping the vast basins of oil and gas discovered in Wyoming, Montana and other Rocky Mountain states might extend to Idaho's fringes.

Several national forests, including the companion Targhee National Forest in Idaho and Wyoming, have already developed plans to open areas to drilling.

The review on the Caribou National Forest would take at least a year, said spokesman Lynn Ballard. There are currently more than 750,000 acres in the forest designated as roadless areas.

Oil and gas exploration is barred on that land, Ballard said. However, the protected area could shrink under a revised roadless plan proposed by former Gov. Jim Risch and awaiting federal approval.

After forest officials identify available parcels on the Caribou National Forest, the Bureau of Land Management, which has jurisdiction over all public mineral estates, would open bidding on the lease sites.

If a leaseholder decides to drill for oil or natural gas, the national forest would have to approve the project after conducting an environmental assessment, Ballard said.

"I think the industry has a pretty good idea of what's available," he said. "My guess is it's probably a fairly low potential overall, but there might be some spots out there."

John Robison, public lands director for the Idaho Conservation League, questioned why the government has been eager to develop pristine lands in Idaho, especially to drill test wells that would likely come up empty or produce relatively little oil and gas.

He said oil and gas drilling on the Caribou National Forest would sully nearby rivers and springs and threaten endangered populations of cutthroat trout and sage grouse.