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Global energy demand is predicted to increase dramatically, suggesting the need to better understand the role of disturbance and develop more efficient conservation strategies for affected wildlife populations.  We evaluated elk (Cervus elaphus) response to disturbance associated with natural gas development in summer and winter, including shifts in resource selection and concomitant distribution.  We monitored elk before (1992–1995) and during (2008–2010) coal bed natural gas (CBNG) development in the ~498-km2 Fortification Creek Area (FCA) of northeastern Wyoming, USA where approximately 700 CBNG wells and 542 km of collector, local, and resource roads were developed from 2000 through 2010.  We developed resource selection functions for summer and winter using VHF locations from female elk prior to CBNG development and GPS locations from female elk during CBNG development to assess spatial selection shifts.  We created models at the population level by pooling across all locations for before and during development data and incorporated individual variation through bootstrapping standard errors for parameter estimates.  Comparison of elk resource selection before and during natural gas development demonstrated behavioral and distributional shifts whereby during development, elk used distance and escape cover to minimize exposure to roads.  Specifically, during development elk selected areas with greater Rocky Mountain juniper (Juniperus scopulorum Sarg.) cover, terrain ruggedness, and farther from CBNG roads depending on season.  Elk distributional changes resulting from avoidance behavior lead to a loss of areas formerly classified as high use by 43.1% and 50.2% in summer and winter, respectively.  We suggest reducing traffic, protecting woody escape cover, and maintaining refugia within the energy development footprint to promote persistence of elk and other wildlife within energy fields.