FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

BLM Actions Threaten Proposed Wilderness Across Colorado

Agency Reneges on Past Pledges to Protect Citizen-Proposed Wilderness in favor of an Aggressive Oil & Gas Drilling, Off-Road Vehicle Agenda

Today the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) leased some 27,250 acres of proposed wilderness in Colorado for oil and gas development, the latest assault in a growing list of Bush Administration actions that are threatening Colorado’s wild backcountry and open spaces.

Today the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) leased some 27,250 acres of proposed wilderness in Colorado for oil and gas development, the latest assault in a growing list of Bush Administration actions that are threatening Colorado’s wild backcountry and open spaces. This leasing of public wildlands comes despite a backlog of leases and drilling permits still unused by the oil and gas industry, record levels of permits issued in the state and nationally, and record profits for the oil and gas industry. In response, conservation groups recently filed formal protests of the BLM’s proposed leases in these citizen-proposed wilderness areas.

"We hear BLM stress the need for balanced uses of our public lands when speaking in favor of oil and gas development, but at what point does balance use actually include the protection of Colorado’s wilderness," stated Eric Rechel, chair of the Uncompahgre Group of the Sierra Club. "This lease sale is just the latest in a series of attempts by the BLM to open up Colorado’s remaining unprotected public wildlands with very little consideration for the input of stakeholders and other concerned citizens who expect to be involved in public land decisions."

BLM’s November oil and gas lease sale, in addition to leasing almost the entire South Shale Ridge proposed wilderness area, includes lease parcels inside other citizen-proposed wilderness areas including the popular rafting destination of Dolores River Canyon and the rugged Demaree Canyon. Previous lease sales have also intruded upon other Colorado’s wilderness-quality lands, including Big Ridge and Grand Hogback. The result: over 82,000 acres in 14 proposed Colorado wilderness areas have been leased in the last two years alone. All of these special lands have been inventoried by citizens groups, found to quality for wilderness designation, and formally proposed for protection years ago, but BLM is now ignoring citizen input and placing oil and gas development over all other public values including hunting, fishing, and recreation opportunities.

"Colorado’s proposed-wilderness and roadless public lands provide an enduring legacy for residents and the nation," said Bill Hamann, a Grand Junction resident and member of the Colorado Mountain Club. "The BLM continuously reminds the public that it is a multiple-use agency. Multiple Use, as described in federal regulations does not only mean opening lands to dirt bikes and drill rigs, but includes management for recreation, watershed, wildlife and fish, scenic, scientific and historical values. These lands are not only the scenic and inspiring backdrops to our lives and communities, but reservoirs of biological diversity, havens for wildlife, and quiet places for our own enjoyment and reflection. These lands, and these public and natural resources, deserve protection. At the very least they deserve fair consideration before becoming gas fields and motor parks."

Today’s lease sale represents but one example of the BLM’s many attacks on Colorado’s proposed wilderness. Other raids on Colorado’s public land values include the White River Field Office’s recent decision to allow the destruction of a herd of wild horses, as well as 7,000 acres of roadless wildlife habitat and proposed wilderness at Oil Spring Mountain, to permit oil and gas development. And a recent proposed travel plan for the Bangs Canyon Special Management Area would greatly expand dirt bike and off-road vehicle use into quiet and backcountry areas, and carve a damaging new road through the area's wilderness-quality lands with little regard for the non-motorized values these lands already provide, such as hunting, horseback riding, hiking and mountain biking opportunities.

"Despite public outcry and concerns from other federal agencies, the BLM is replacing wild horses and wild places with oil and gas drilling rigs, and in the process sacrificing the very identity and heritage of the West," stated Reed Morris from the Colorado Wilderness Network.

Such assaults on Colorado’s public lands were given the green light in 2003 when the Bush Administration formalized its "no more wilderness" policy that barred BLM from ever again considering Wilderness Study Area protection for qualifying public lands—a policy that is being challenged in court and in recent preliminary rulings was found to be overreaching.

In contrast, conservationists have long maintained that South Shale Ridge and some 60 other citizen-proposed wilderness areas across Colorado meet all the criteria for designation as Wilderness Study Areas and eventual protection by Congress as wilderness. Under the Clinton Administration, the BLM agreed to consider potential wilderness character and how it might be safeguarded before committing citizen-proposed wilderness areas to new oil and gas leasing, expanded motorized use, or other harmful actions. In the late 1990s, BLM worked with citizen, local officials, and interest groups to determine if certain citizen-proposed areas across Colorado were eligible for protection as wilderness, and based on this new fieldwork BLM found that these citizen-proposed wilderness areas—including Bangs Canyon and South Shale Ridge—possessed “wilderness character” and should be subject to updated management plans that consider and protect their wilderness qualities. Now, however, BLM is reneging on this commitment to consider protection for these lands.

"BLM set the standards, made promises to the public, and initiated an intensive wilderness review of these lands that was supposed to ensure careful consideration of these special places prior to deciding their fate," stated Pete Kolbenschlag from the Colorado Environmental Coalition. "But all that has changed. The BLM is now aggressively moving toward opening our few remaining wilderness-quality lands to oil and gas drilling, dirtbikes, and other ORVs."

BLM’s headlong rush to drill South Shale Ridge and other wildlands has also brought criticism from U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service (FWS) regarding potential damaging effects of oil and gas development on endangered species. In a recent letter to BLM, FWS disagreed with its sister agency’s finding that new oil and gas leasing in the area would have “no effect” on species protected under the Endangered Species Act and urged the BLM to consult with FWS before proceeding.

Conservation groups and citizens are concerned that the current anti-wilderness policies will cause long-term and significant harm to Colorado’s unique and irreplaceable quality-of-life.

"Colorado’s greatest commodity is its incredible landscape—it’s the reason people migrate to the state, the draw for tourists, and a source of our economic stability," stated Suzanne Jones of The Wilderness Society. "Yet under this administration, we are losing ground literally and figuratively to the oil and gas industry and the relentless spread of off-road vehicles, and with it our state’s greatest asset."

The Citizens' Wilderness Proposal, including 60 of the state's more unique, ecologically diverse, and undisturbed wildland areas, was first published in 1994 and was most recently revised in 2001.

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