A group supporting public employees is challenging the firing of an environmental analyst who said the U.S. Bureau of Land Management’s approval of a Delaware-sized oilfield in Converse County failed to protect migratory birds as required.
Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility said in late November it is appealing the firing of Walter Loewen, who had been terminated about a week earlier. The six-year BLM employee in Wyoming had objected to his superiors’ disregard for deleterious effects development of 5,000 oil or gas wells near Douglas would have on nesting sites for ferruginous hawks, kestrels, owls and other birds.
