The Bureau of Land Management is ruffling feathers yet again with its plans for oil and gas drilling in the West. This time, the BLM has proposed drilling on 20,000 acres in northwestern Colorado – the site of a reintroduction program for the highly endangered black-footed ferret.

The Denver Post reported that Fish and Wildlife biologists working on the black-footed ferret program said the BLM decision could threaten the animal’s recovery. Just months ago, the first juvenile ferret born since the reintroduction was spotted in the area where the BLM wants to drill. According to the Post, there was “in-house dissension” over the plan to sell drilling leases in the area, since the BLM is actually a partner in the ferret recovery effort.

A BLM biologist in Wyoming recently quit the agency, saying he and other scientists there were being prevented from monitoring wildlife and were instead spending all their time processing applications for oil and gas leases.

Loss of habitat is the main reason for the near-extinction of the black-footed ferret from the Western prairie. Only two percent of the species’ habitat remains intact, due to conversion of land to farming and the eradication or deep fragmentation of prairie dog communities, the ferrets’ main source of food.

Photo credit: Black-footed Ferret Recovery Program