Last month, the Bureau of Land Management floated its proposal to sell leases on over 126,000 acres of public lands in Colorado for oil and gas drilling.
On June 9, a 30-day scoping period began for 114 parcels to be brought to auction in December. Some of those parcels are in the Roan Plateau, which towers 3,000 feet above the Colorado River near Rifle. This remote and largely pristine area is home to diverse and rare species of flora and fauna.
A tour with EcoFlight brought advocates, reporters, hunters and anglers together to scope the proposed leasing parcels.
Approaching the plateau, it was surprising to see how much land had already been developed and extracted. Roads disrupted and made bare what would have been land covered in aspen stands, mountain meadows, juniper, and more.
While flying over the proposed lease areas, it was noticeable how lush and green all the vegetation was. The plane flew past a glistening stream home to pristine and genetically unique cutthroat trout.
Conversations about the Roan Plateau and the proposed leases struck up when people were back on land. Dean Riggs, now retired from Colorado Parks and Wildlife, shared his thoughts.
“The most significant thing of all of this is that we continue to lose habitat by the bucket load. You know, the question then becomes: well where is wildlife supposed to be then? Where does wildlife have an opportunity to live on the landscape and do all of the necessary steps to survive and be meaningful populations of wildlife?”
The Roan Plateau is also home to elk herds, mule deer, greater sage-grouse, and endemic plants like the Parachute penstemon.
“And so then you start to think, what’s it going to look like 60 years from now?” Dean asked. “Are we still going to have the biggest elk population in the United States? The habitat that we are going to lose, you can't put a price tag on that. It’s not a nice-to-have, you've got to have it.”
Federal policy changes may significantly cut local voices out of the Bureau of Land Management’s public land planning process. Even as the BLM scopes December lease sales in Colorado and Arizona, the U.S. Department of the Interior proposed changes to the oil and gas leasing process, announced in late June. One rule change would reduce public participation from 90 days to 10 days. In the Federal Register notice, the Interior Department said the goal is to “significantly expedite” the process.
