FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

ONDA and Ruby Pipeline Establish Multi-Million Dollar Greater Hart-Sheldon Conservation Fund

ONDA and Ruby Pipeline LLC have signed an agreement that will fund protection for species and habitat in the area around the Hart Mountain and Sheldon National Wildlife Refuges. The ONDA-Ruby agreement establishing the Greater Hart-Sheldon Conservation Fund is one of two agreements between Ruby and conservation groups under which the natural gas pipeline company will donate more than $20 million over the next 10 years to preserve lands and wildlife habitat and retire grazing permits near the pipeline’s route. The Greater Hart-Sheldon Conservation Fund will create restoration and conservation opportunities in critical sage grouse and pronghorn habitat in the 5 million acres within and surrounding the two Refuges.

Ruby is building a natural gas pipeline that will run 680 miles from Opal, Wyoming to Malin, Oregon, passing through Nevada south of the Sheldon Refuge (maps and other information at http://onda.org/enforcing-conservation-laws/legal-actions/administrative-actions-1/ruby-pipeline/). ONDA first filed comments on the pipeline proposal in April 2008, urging that the pipeline route avoid citizen-proposed wilderness and important wildlife habitat. Although the pipeline’s approved route will avoid roadless areas and areas with wilderness character in Oregon, the final environmental impact statement for the pipeline acknowledges that the pipeline will displace species, particularly sage grouse and pygmy rabbit, in the immediate vicinity of the route.

To mitigate impacts, Ruby has agreed to a variety of measures, including an agreement with the Bureau of Land Management, Nevada Department of Wildlife, and other state wildlife agencies to pay $11.8 million for habitat conservation projects in sage grouse and pygmy rabbit habitat. After much consideration and conversations among Ruby and other conservation groups, ONDA decided that Ruby’s offer to pay more than $8.5 million for land acquisition, habitat restoration and grazing permit retirement in the Hart-Sheldon ecosystem and an additional $13.5 million for grazing permit retirement along the pipeline (that will be paid into a new, separate non-profit established under an agreement between Ruby and the Western Watersheds Project) represented an unparalleled opportunity to permanently preserve and restore large areas of core habitat for sage grouse and other species in the corridor between the two refuges and off-set part of the negative impact from the pipeline’s construction. As a result, ONDA has decided not oppose construction of the Ruby Pipeline.

To be clear, ONDA will not be the recipient of these funds. Instead, the Greater Hart-Sheldon Conservation Fund will be a new, separate non-profit with directors appointed by ONDA and Ruby. The Fund will purchase private inholdings on and near the refuges from willing buyers, promote restoration activities such as spring restoration, fence removal, riparian exclosures, invasive species control, and habitat improvements, and fund retirement of livestock grazing permits on a willing seller basis. Protecting the area around the Hart Mountain and Sheldon Refuges is critical to ensuring the survival of high desert species like sage grouse and pronghorn antelope. ONDA has been working to protect this region for over 20 years, particularly through fence removal efforts on the Hart Mountain Refuge. Establishing the Greater Hart-Sheldon Conservation Fund will create restoration and conservation opportunities on critical habitat spanning over 5 million acres.

In addition to the Greater Hart-Sheldon Conservation Fund, Ruby and Western Watersheds Project have established a Sagebrush Habitat Conservation Fund to purchase and retire livestock grazing permits near the pipeline route. Up to $1.5 million of that fund is dedicated for permit retirement in the Hart-Sheldon region. This decision was arrived at after several months of careful deliberation and we believe that ultimately it will be key to addressing many long-standing impediments to conservation in the Hart-Sheldon region; thanks to all of you who provided input during this process. If you would like more information about this effort, please don’t hesitate to contact me.

Brent Fenty
Executive Director

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