Once targeted as federal wilderness
Posted: Monday, November 14, 2005 12:00 am
DENVER (AP) - Roughly 72,000 acres of public land just leased for oil and gas development include thousands of acres that were once proposed as federal wilderness and home to rare plants.
The Bureau of Land Management auction Thursday included 23,183 acres in the South Shale Ridge area near DeBeque, about 210 miles west of Denver and in one of the state's hot spots for natural gas drilling.
In 1999, during the Clinton administration, the BLM said the area, with more than 40 miles of twisting arroyos and multicolored ridges, had wilderness characteristics, a step toward recommending that Congress declare it a federal wilderness area.
The site is also part of a proposal by Rep. Diana DeGette, D-Colo., to declare an additional 1.6 million acres in Colorado as wilderness.
BLM spokeswoman Theresa Sauer said Friday that a formal protest of leasing South Shale Ridge has been filed. The issue can ultimately be appealed to an Interior Department appeals board. No lease is issued until the matter is resolved.
Colorado environmental groups are also challenging the leases under the federal Endangered Species Act. They contend that the BLM didn't consider input from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service when deciding to lease the land.
The DeBeque phacelia, a wildflower thought to exist only in the DeBeque area, is a candidate for the endangered species list. The Fish and Wildlife Service has been petitioned to place another area plant, the DeBeque milkvetch, on the list.
A June 20 memo from Fish and Wildlife to the BLM obtained by the Colorado Environmental Coalition said the oil and gas development proposed in South Shale Ridge "will contribute to the need to list these two species."
"This lease 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 expected to be involved in public land decisions," said Eric Rechel of the Sierra Club.
Doug Koza, BLM's associate state director, said while gas production from Colorado's federal lands play an important role in meeting the nation's energy needs, the agency works with companies to lessen the environmental impacts.
All leases include general requirements to protect the environment as well as site-specific requirements, according to the BLM.
A total of 72 parcels of federal land were auctioned Thursday, raising $8.2 million. The state and federal government will split the proceeds.
The criticism of the BLM has escalated as the number of gas and oil leases has increased. BLM officials say they are required to hold quarterly auctions of parcels nominated by companies and others and are charged with balancing multiple uses of the public lands.
Critics contend the agency is emphasizing energy development over other uses.