MT Oil & Gas Lease Sale Protest Period Open!

Protest Period Open for Upcoming Montana Oil and Gas Lease Sale

Protests due: December 6

Hi Chris,

The Sale Notice for Montana Bureau of Land Management's (the Bureau's) January 2025 Oil and Gas Lease Sale is now available. According to the ePlanning site and Sale Notice, the Montana Bureau plans to offer 6 parcels totaling 1,125.63 acres (with additional parcels in North Dakota). Protests are due December 6.

Rocky Mountain Wild has prepared a screen showing conflicts between the proposed parcels and important wildlife, wilderness, and other resources values.

An interactive map showing the parcels and selected conflicts is available here: https://rockymountainwild.org/oil_and_gas/montana. More information about this and other sales is available in the Upcoming Lease Sale Tracker Google Sheet.

Conservation conflicts identified for these parcels include:

Mule Deer and Whitetail Deer Winter Distribution Areas
One parcel in Montana (MT-2025-01-0409) is in an area identified by the Bureau as having low potential for oil and gas development. That parcel is close to existing dvelopment including producing wells

Please take a moment and send your protests to the Bureau asking them to protect the wildlife and wild lands in this region by removing affected areas from the proposed parcels list. Directions for how to submit your protest can be found starting on page 11 of the Sale Notice.

To date, we have helped defer more than 3 million acres of public land from oil and gas development! Together, we can save even more.

Additional Resources:

Oil & Gas Toolkit - including a guide from our Senior Conservation Biologist, Megan Mueller, on how to write technical comments about impacts to plan and animal species. Check it out under "Writing comments and Protects" here
Virtual Event Recording: Oil and Gas Lease Sale Comment Writing Workshop
Montana/Dakotas Oil and Gas Lease Sale webpage
Montana/Dakotas January 2025 Oil and Gas Lease Sale eplanning page
Montana/Dakotas January 2025 Notice of Competitive Lease Sale

Thank you for taking action and protecting the species in our region!
Photograph of Chris surrounded by their illustrations of a bighorn sheep, black-footed ferret, hoary bat, boreal toad, Canada lynx, and Gunnison sage-grouse

Photograph of Chris surrounded by their illustrations of a bighorn sheep, black-footed ferret, hoary bat, boreal toad, Canada lynx, and Gunnison sage-grouse

Chris Talbot-Heindl (they/them)
Communications Director, Leadership Team
Rocky Mountain Wild

P.S. RMW scopes each and every oil and gas lease sale in our region. Help fund this important work, consider a one-time donation or monthly donation through our Colorado Gives portal.

Header: A mule deer buck peeks over vegetation, courtesy of Scott Akerman (CC BY 2.0)