MAC BLEWER

Perspective

The time to protect the Northern Red Desert is now. This wild expanse of public land provides a vital sanctuary for our majestic wildlife and our cultural heritage but it could be lost in the rush to develop energy if we don't draw the line in the sand now. Enough is enough. There needs to be some lands left where we can hunt, camp, hike, rock hunt and fish in a landscape that looks much the same as it did 100, even 500 years ago.

Credit is due to Gov. Dave Freudenthal for his courageous words and actions regarding a need for balance between energy development and conservation of wild places and wildlife in the Jack Morrow Hills of the northern Red Desert. Such a principled stance will be increasingly necessary during the challenging years ahead, as our communities continue to change - some for the better, many for the worse. The Red Desert, the Upper Green, the Powder River Country and other iconic landscapes are rapidly changing as development alters the character of Wyoming and the outdoor heritage that its citizens have long enjoyed. Unfortunately, the governor cannot stop drilling in the northern Red Desert. Only Congress can, and Congress will only if we speak up.

The first recorded effort to protect the Red Desert was an 1898 proposal by a Lander hunter, Dr. Frank Dunham, to create a Winter Game Preserve stretching from the Oregon Buttes-Steamboat Mountain country all the way to Yellowstone National Park. A local sporting group, the League of Associated Sportsmen, championed his proposal. Their unsuccessful effort was followed by an attempt in 1935 by Gov. Leslie Miller and Wyoming's Congressional leaders to protect the Red Desert as part of a larger "Western Trails National Park"; a proposal in 1968 by Cora rancher, Carroll Noble, and Lander conservationist, Tom Bell, to designate the area as a North American Antelope Range; and various subsequent attempts to conserve the desert as a National Monument, a National Wildlife Refuge and a National Historic Landscape. All these efforts failed, but they are indicative of the Red Desert's allure, which has captivated people for ages.

Wyoming is the only state besides Alaska where National Monument designation through Executive Order is not an option. National Conservation Area designation by Congress is, however.

National Conservation Area (NCA) designation for the Jack Morrow Hills should be proposed immediately, before the completed Jack Morrow Hills plan is implemented and development of big game habitat around Steamboat Mountain, Oregon Buttes and the Pinnacles goes forward, further compromising the Steamboat Mountain elk herd.

The BLM worked diligently on the Jack Morrow Hills plan, but the agency bowed to pressure from Washington, D.C., and left large stretches of the desert open to drilling. The agency's top officials have stated the plan puts "off limits" much of the "core area" around Steamboat, but such assertions are misleading. Existing mineral leases must be honored, and a window for their development has been approved.

National Conservation Area designation would call for the trade or buyout of mineral leases in sensitive areas while allowing for grazing, hunting and responsible motorized and outdoor recreation to proceed as directed by the BLM. Wilderness Study Areas would remain as Wilderness Study Areas.

The American West as we know it today will not be the same tomorrow. Natural gas drilling is sweeping communities throughout the Rockies and now the specter of oil shale development is rearing its ugly head. Colorado's Roan Plateau and San Juan Basin are increasingly threatened. New Mexico's Otero Mesa and Valle Vidal are endangered. Even part of Montana's Rocky Mountain Front remains imperiled.

With sportsmen, ranchers and conservationists grouping together and local officials crying for common sense to prevail, I believe that we can turn this train around before it is too late. While we do need mineral development in the United States, we need to plan the development carefully, conserve as we go along and wean ourselves off of fossil fuels in favor of clean alternatives. For a nation that defeated the Axis in four years during WW II and put men on the moon, we are capable of such great things as a people if we use our technical know-how and can-do spirit.

If Wyoming's leaders call for a northern Red Desert National Conservation Area, it will be one of the greatest triumphs for big game and for wild places that this state has seen in decades. The time for Congressional legislation to conserve Wyoming's Red Desert is now.

Mac Blewer is a writer, conservation advocate and amateur naturalist. He splits his time between Washington, D.C., and his adopted home of Lander. He may be reached at reddesertrat@earthlink.net).