Colorado’s Roan Plateau:
in the energy debate’s bull’s eye

By Suzanne Jones

While the national energy debate rages in Washington, D.C., with heated arguments over our dependence on Mideast oil, the Enron bankruptcy scandal, and drilling in the Arctic Refuge, the federal government is quietly letting the oil and gas industry have its way with the public lands of the Intermountain West. In Colorado, for example, over ninety percent of the lands managed by the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) are open to potential oil and gas leasing, and drilling permits are being issued at a record pace.

While most agree there is a place for oil and gas drilling on some of our public lands, now even our last unprotected wild places are at risk—special places such as the Roan Plateau, which towers over Rifle, Colorado, along the I-70 corridor. Rising 3,500 feet above the Colorado River valley, the spectacular Roan Cliffs give way to a broad and rolling plateau, with quiet forests of dense spruce-fir, immense aspen groves, sagebrush parks, and wildflower meadows. Several creeks cross the plateau and drop into dramatic box canyons, one of which features a spectacular 200-foot waterfall.

The Roan Plateau is notable for more than its beauty. Formerly known as the Naval Oil Shale Reserve, this commanding landform was once a focus of an economic boom and bust that reverberated across Colorado, buoyed by speculation that oil shale technology would lead to an energy bonanza. After the boom turned to bust, the undeveloped plateau was transferred from the Department of Energy to the BLM in 1997 to be managed for “multiple use.” The BLM is now required by law to develop a management plan for the area that will govern the management of all uses—including recreation, fish and wildlife, livestock grazing, and potential wilderness protection, as well as whether the area will be leased for oil and gas development.

Because of its location within the gas-rich Piceance Basin, the oil and gas industry has placed the Roan Plateau high on its wish list. Already, lands along the base of the plateau have been leased and are now being drilled: look for the drill rigs next time you drive along I-70. Luckily, no development can occur on the uplands until the BLM finishes its plan, a draft of which is due out this September. Much is at stake in this management debate.

The Roan Plateau contains an amazing level of biological diversity, including some species found nowhere else in the world. In addition to wildlife such as deer, elk, black bear, and mountain lion, the plateau also is home to one of the state’s most genetically pure populations of native Colorado River cutthroat trout, as well as several endangered species and numerous rare plant communities. This diversity is due in part to the area’s tremendous variation in elevation (from around 5,000 feet to 9,000 feet) and unusual shale geology. According to the Colorado Natural Heritage Program, the Roan Plateau is one of the most diverse places in western Colorado: “We are aware of only three additional areas of comparable size in western Colorado that document such a high richness of species of concern.” Of these four areas, the Roan Plateau is the only area still unprotected: two are National Monuments, and the other a National Park.

In addition to its outstanding ecological wealth, the Roan Plateau is rich in history and culture: a government survey revealed over one hundred sites with notable cultural, historical, and paleontological artifacts. The Ute Indians are thought to have raised horses on the plateau prior to European settlement—a practice that the BLM credits for the Roan Plateau’s name. The beautiful terrain and outstanding wildlife resources also make the area a favorite place for hunting, fishing, and many other types of recreation.

Recognizing the many values of this special place, citizens have proposed the heart of the Roan Plateau for wilderness protection. Four separate units on the plateau, totaling about 38,000 acres of the 73,000-acre planning area, are in the Citizens’ Wilderness Proposal and were subsequently proposed for wilderness designation in the “Colorado Wilderness Act of 1999” sponsored by Representatives Diana DeGette and Mark Udall. Some sixty other BLM areas are also included in this comprehensive statewide bill, many of which are also at risk from oil and gas development.

As with many areas across the West, the BLM is under tremendous pressure to open the Roan Plateau to energy development. The Bush Administration’s energy policy, which is being debated in the United States Congress this month, would roll back existing environmental protections for public lands. One such provision of the bill directs the BLM to study and remove “impediments” to oil and gas development on public lands. These impediments include restrictions such as drilling limits on steep slopes, seasonal wildlife closures to protect calving habitat, and interim protection for proposed wilderness areas such as the Roan Plateau. The bill also contains billions of dollars of subsidies for the oil and gas industry that would make it economically feasable to develop remote places on our public lands that might otherwise be protected for other values. Development of the Roan Plateau management plan has been put on a fast-track timeline, as have revisions for eleven other BLM Resource Management Plans across the West in order to promote additional oil and gas development.

Conservationists maintain that the Roan Plateau is a place where we can have our cake and eat it too—with oil and gas development at the base, and protection for the plateau’s uplands. It could be a perfect place for the oil and gas industry to showcase its claims of environmentally benign energy development by using such new technologies as directional drilling—where surface resources are protected by drilling at an angle from outside the area. Such a balanced management plan would also allow the new administration to prove its critics wrong about its intent to rollback environmental protections.

The Bureau of Land Management has been holding public meetings to gather input on how citizens want the plateau to be managed. To participate in this dialogue, contact the Glenwood Springs BLM Field Office at (970) 947-2824, or visit the BLM’s website at: www.co.blm.gov/gsra/ roanplateau.htm. Also, contact your Senators to tell them how you feel about drilling in proposed wilderness areas. Lastly, watch the CMC’s website for action alerts on the Roan Plateau at www.cmc.org/cmc/conservation/hottopic.html

Suzanne Jones is the Assistant Regional Director for the Four Corners Office of The Wilderness Society.