Environmental security

7.4 Million Acres of Ecosystem Lost to Oil and Gas Boom

The U.S. energy boom resulted in 7.4 million acres of lost vegetation in the Midwest from 2000 to 2013, a new study from the University of Montana says. That’s similar to losing about 120 million bushels of wheat, about half the federal land available for grazing, or Yellowstone National Park three times over.“I was a little surprised; I don’t think I was expecting it to be this large,” says Brady Allred, the study's lead author and an assistant professor of rangeland ecology in the university’s College of Forestry and Conservation.