Battle Over Roan Plateau Continues

The top of Colorado’s Roan Plateau is one of the four biologically richest areas in Colorado. The other three areas – Mesa Verde National Park, Dinosaur National Monument, and Colorado National Monument – have been permanently protected as part of our national park system. The Bureau of Land Management (“BLM”) has observed that while the Roan lacks comparable legal protections, it “is clearly of comparable biological significance” to these national monuments and parks.  An estimated 57 threatened or sensitive animal species may live in and around the area planned for development, including sage grouse, bald eagles and the peregrine falcon. Mule deer and Rocky Mountain elk, two highly sought-after big game species, use the Roan Plateau for migration and winter habitat, and during calving (when they are particularly vulnerable). These elk and deer help support a significant economy in hunting, fishing and backcountry recreation. The Plateau also contains some of the few remaining watersheds where genetically pure, reproducing populations of Colorado River cutthroat trout can be found. And the Roan hosts a collection of rare plant communities, including some of the rarest plants in North America like the parachute penstemon (found in only five places in the world), and the Roan Cliffs Blazing Star.

In 2008, Rock the Earth, along with a coalition of conservation and sportsmen groups, sued the BLM in Federal Court for the wholesale leasing of all 55,000 acres atop the Plateau.  It is our intent to prevent the top of the Roan Plateau from being transformed into an industrial oil and gas field,  just as Colorado’s national parks and monuments would not be sacrificed in such a manner.  Recently Bill Barrett Corp., the company that acquired many of these leases early this year, revealed that it plans as many as 3,200 “drilling locations” atop the Roan, requiring an industrial-grade infrastructure and a level of development that was never considered by the BLM.  These plans contrasted sharply with BLM’s environmental analysis, which evaluated only 210 wells atop the Plateau.

While there has been no settlement by the parties resulting in protection of these valuable and irreplaceable natural resources found on the Roan (despite continued settlement negotiations and mediation), the drilling companies have recently agreed to a standstill agreement in which there will be no surface disturbance (i.e. no drilling operations) on the lands in question during the course of continued settlement negotiations, thereby gaining, at least for now, continued protection for this amazingly special place. 

For a recent New York Times feature (including video) about the battle over Roan Plateau, go here. 

In addition, in a remarkable turn of events, the Grand Junction Sentinel, the area’s most prominent newspaper that had formerly endorsed the BLM plan has recently come out against it.  To read the Sentinel’s editorial on the issue, go here.

YOU CAN MAKE A DIFFERENCE. Please help us stop destructive gas development from destroying the Roan Plateau.  Five million acres of land in Colorado are already leased for oil and gas. Some places, like the Roan, are just too special to permit drilling.

Contact Department of the Interior Secretary Ken Salazar and make the following points: 

• You are against the current BLM plan for the Roan Plateau that will destroy this very special place.
• You want to see the current leases to drill the Roan CANCELLED and would like BLM to take a fresh look at responsible methods to drill for natural gas in environmentally sensitive areas like the Roan.
  

You can reach Secretary Salazar at:  202-208-3100 or at feedback@ios.doi.gov.

For more information on this issue, please see our RtE Roan Plateau Project Page.