Raptor nesting near oil and gas development: an overview of key findings and implications for management based on four reports by HawkWatch International

The project was undertaken because of a paucity of
information about the possible effects of OG operations
and resource management on nesting raptors. BLM
raptor management has included stipulations that
restricted human activity near raptor nests during the
raptor nesting season. The BLM and the Department of
Energy (DOE), which provided financial support for the
study, seek information that will contribute to enhancing
OG extraction operations while providing environmental
protection, including raptor conservation.

This project used historical data from Utah and Wyoming.
The Price, Utah study area, as of 2006, contained more
than 1,100 wells, in a nearly uniform distribution at a
density of one per quarter section (160-acre spacing).
Some development occurred closer to existing nests
because the nest sites had not been discovered or because
the land is administered by the State of Utah, without
these stipulations. The Rawlins, Wyoming study area
included more than 4,200 OG wells in 2006. Compared to
the Price study area, wells at Rawlins were less regularly
distributed; reaching densities of one well per quarter
section (160-acre spacing) in some areas, but less dense
elsewhere.

HWI compiled information from federal bureaus,
state agencies, and industry, and determined how to
evaluate the effectiveness of spatial and temporal buffer
restrictions that have been applied within areas of OG
extraction. HWI used the historical data to describe
patterns of OG development relative to raptor nests, and
to document changes in the distribution and breeding
status of raptor nests relative to OG activities. HWI
evaluated how these historical datasets were useful for
quantifying the relationship between OG development
and other human activities and nesting raptors. HWI
assessed changes in Ferruginous Hawk (Buteo regalis)
nesting success and productivity, and in use of artificial
nest structures (ANSs), which had been erected to reduce
the use by raptors of OG structures as nest substrates.
Also, HWI studied Accipiter species’ use of pinyon–
juniper vegetation communities in the Piceance Basin
of Colorado, described basic vegetation and landscape
characteristics of nests, and offered recommendations
about surveying for accipiter hawks in pinyon–juniper
landscapes. Please read the HWI reports for details.