BLM’s Draft Plan Leaves Wild Northwest Colorado Unprotected

Northwest Colorado's greatest treasure, 1.3 million acres of publicly owned rugged canyonlands and rolling sagebrush-steppe, is on the brink of degradation and destruction from massive oil and gas development and irresponsible off-road vehicle (ORV) use.  

BLM's draft plan opens 93 percent of the Little Snake Resource Area to oil and gas drilling, including all of the spectacular Vermillion Basin proposed wilderness and many other wilderness-quality lands, while offering almost no protection for the area's priceless natural resources and unspoiled wildlands. 

At risk are critical and currently undisturbed habitat for big game (the Colorado Department of Wildlife inventoried more than 56,000 elk, 149,000 deer, and 20,000 pronghorn in the broader region in 2007); over a dozen imperiled plants and animals like the black-footed ferret; and sustainable economic gains from many forms of non-motorized recreation from hiking to hunting. Hunting and fishing alone generated more than $67 million in total economic gains in Moffat and Rout counties in 2002, according to the Colorado Department of Wildlife(“The Economic Impacts of Hunting, Fishing and Wildlife Watching in Colorado,” October 31, 2004).

At this rate, some of Colorado's finest public lands are on track to suffer the same large-scale environmental damages from oil and gas drilling as nearby Pinedale, Wyoming. 

Fact Sheets

For more information on these incredible lands, please read the factsheets below.

Little Snake RMP Action Alert

Vermillion Basin and the Little Snake Resource Area -- What’s At Stake

Greater Sage-Grouse in the Little Snake Resource Area: Protecting An Icon of the West

Big Game in the Little Snake Resource Area: Northwest Colorado's Great Resource at Risk (citations)

Threats to Landscape and Lifesyle

Cultural Resources

Wild and Scenic Rivers

BLM's Comptetitive Oil and Gas Leasing & Drlling Process

A GIS Analysis of the Undiscovered Technically Recoverable Oil and Gas in the Little Snake Resource Area

The Resource Management Planning Process

As part of the Resource Management Plan (RMP) process for the Little Snake Field Office, the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) developed a Reasonable Foreseeable Development (RFD) scenario for oil and gas development on federally managed minerals within the planning area – BLM asked the oil and gas industry to identify the number of wells it plans to drill over the next 20 years and identify areas where they expect intense development to occur.  The document BLM developed is available here (pdf).

Scientists at The Wilderness Society used this document – along with information gathered during detailed discussions with BLM staff – to map what the Little Snake Field Office might look like in 20 years if, as anticipated, the BLM proceeds with development as outlined in RFD scenario.  Using advanced spatial analysis, The Wilderness Society’s scientists were able to map one possible scenario of oil and gas development within the resource area, calculate the resulting habitat fragmentation, and predict the likely impacts that oil and gas development will have on wilderness quality lands, big game species, and Greater Sage-Grouse.  To view the assumptions and constraints used in this analysis, please click here.

Click here to view maps of build-out scenarios in specific areas within the Little Snake Field Office region.

Press Release

2-12-07: BLM's New Draft Plan for Northwest Colorado Favors Oil and Gas Development, Threatens Wildlife, Wild Lands and Cultural Artifacts

Take Action

You can help save northwest Colorado’s magnificent landscape! The public comment period for the draft RMP is over, but your help is still needed. Click here to action.

Photos and Video

Click on thumbnail to enlarge photo:

Cross Mountain	Cross Mountain Gorge	Yampa
Vermillion Creek in Vermillion Canyon	Vermillion	Cold Spring Mountain

Friends of Northwest Colorado

Friends of Northwest Colorado Conservation Vision for the Little Snake Resource Area