Oil and gas prices have ignited a modern-day gold rush across the Rockies, and classic elk country such as Colorado’s Western Slope is awash in an unprecedented tide of cash and development. Towns that once rolled out the red carpet for hunters are now booked solid year-round with the work force of a booming industry.

	With the BLM ramping up oil and gas production, drilling rigs like these will become a more familiar sight for elk hunters.

Yet even with 210 new wells predicted to sit atop the actual plateau, Steven Hall, BLM spokesman, says no new roads will be built there. “Development on the Roan represents the most restrictive regulations wildlife protections that the BLM has ever put in place,” says Hall. He adds that of the 6,368 new wells in Colorado in 2007, 733 of those are on federal land. The rest, roughly 90 percent, are on private and state land. Some of the state land includes places such as Colorado’s Bosque Del Oso Wildlife Management Area.

Located in a watershed home to 24,000 elk, the Bosque grows some bruiser bulls and is managed as a very limited-draw trophy unit. In 1998, the Elk Foundation recognized its wildlife values, acquiring the 30,000-acre parcel and transferring it to the Colorado Division of Wildlife.

Mineral rights were not available as part of the purchase package, and as a result it is now home to 235 producing wells. People wait a decade or more gathering enough preference points to chase elk here, and their reaction to drilling rigs, new roads and truck traffic has been a mixed bag.

In a state survey, some hunters didn’t mind sharing this walk-in-only area with an industrial operation, while others complained it ruined the experience entirely.

“I don’t mind competing with other hunters in a given area, but competing with machinery is too much for me,” wrote elk hunter Anthony Vecellio in a Colorado Division of Wildlife (DOW) survey of his December Bosque hunt. He said it was his first visit and likely his last.

Meanwhile, the industry is investing in measuring and lightening its impact. Companies like EnCana have spent millions on technologies to lessen the number of well pads and are installing pipelines to curb truck traffic. Along with wildlife groups, EnCana, Shell and Williams have also recently contributed to a multi-year DOW study of mule deer and sage grouse in the Piceance Basin northwest of Rifle, Colorado. The Piceance is one of the largest natural gas reserves on the continent but also home to one of the largest migratory mule deer herds anywhere. EnCana contributed $900,000 to the effort, Williams $550,000 and Shell $325,000. The area is expected to host anywhere from 550 to 2,550 new pads with 8 wells per pad in the next 20 years.

A similar industry- and government-funded study on Wyoming’s northern Pinedale Anticline showed a 45 percent drop in mule deer numbers where rapid gas development has persisted through winter months. A new study is looking at how elk tolerate roads, noise and water usage by energy development in Wyoming’s Powder River Basin.

With tens of millions of acres now leased and yet to be drilled, the challenges for wildlife only look to increase. With any luck these studies will help shed light on how much is at stake for wildlife and what can be done to soften the effects.