Garfield county municipalities support CMC Roan Plateau vision

By Vera Smith

Grand JunctionÑLocal citizens and the Colorado Mountain Club praised every town and city council in Garfield County for strongly supporting balanced management for the Roan Plateau. The Plateau, administered by the Bureau of Land Management, is currently undergoing its first-ever comprehensive management plan, and cities and towns across the county made it clear that they want to protect the top and cliffs of the Plateau from intensive gas development.

In October, the BLM released preliminary management alternatives for the Roan Plateau in western Garfield County, known formally as the Naval Oil Shale Reserve. The Roan Plateau is a quiet expanse of mostly undeveloped lands rising 3,500-feet above the Colorado River valley. Colored badlands ascend steeply up to striped gray cliffs. Above lies a broad and rolling plateau with deep, dark forests, immense aspen groves, sagebrush parks, and wildflower meadows. Several creeks cross the plateau and drop into box canyons, one of which boasts a spectacular 200-foot waterfall. These streams also hold some of the state’s purest strains of imperiled Colorado River Cutthroat Trout. Known as one of the most biologically diverse areas on the Western Slope, the plateau provides outstanding habitat for fish, wildlife, and rare plant species.

Preliminary alternatives range from opening the entire area to natural gas drilling (under Alternative E) to providing for a mix of uses including wilderness, motorized recreation, and energy development (under Alternative F). Every council in Garfield County voted their preference for Alternative F, the most protective of those outlined.

“Oil and gas development is running rampant in Garfield County, and there is not much oversight,” said Randy Corry, Silt Town Council member. “Letting the gas industry have free rein with somewhere as beautiful as the Roan Plateau is not in the best interest of the people. National leaders love to talk about local control. The local people in Garfield County have spoken; let’s see if these officials will walk their talk, and act to keep the Roan Plateau undeveloped.”

The city of Rifle, which borders the planning area, noted that the undeveloped feature of the Roan Plateau is a part of Rifle’s defining landscape, providing its dramatic backdrop.  A letter sent to the BLM on behalf of the city council states in part that:  “Locals consider the Roan Plateau a natural asset, a part of Rifle’s identity. The plateau dominates the Rifle view shed and the landform helps people identify with our city in a positive fashion. The Plateau offers residents and visitors a place to recreate in various forms. The wildlife and fisheries attract visitors to our area, which is vital to our economy.”

Fed up with runaway natural gas development in the area, local citizens said that support from all of the county’s municipal governments show that Coloradans expect the BLM to protect open spaces, habitat, recreation, and local quality of life. 

“We understand the importance of the energy industry, but it is not the only engine driving the county’s economy. Hunting and angling provide a steady and sustainable source of revenue for Western Colorado and rival the ski industry for putting dollars into the state economy. The only way toÊprotect our hunting and fishing economies, as well as our own opportunities for recreation, is to protect the undeveloped portions on the top of the plateau,”Êsaid Dan Richardson, Glenwood Springs City Council member.

 “This is an unequivocal statement to protect the Roan Plateau and against making it into a giant gas field,” said Jane Hines, with the Grand Valley Citizens Alliance. “The Roan Plateau, left as it is, provides a tremendous benefit to our community. It is an oasis of undeveloped public land surrounded by a growing gas field. And it is unique, with plants found there that grow nowhere else on earth.”

Americans from across the state and nation also weighed in heavily in support of Alt. F. The BLM’s Glenwood Springs Field Office, responsible for the planning effort, received over 10,000 comments supporting balanced management for the Plateau. Conservationists urged elected leaders to take a stand to safeguard the Roan Plateau for the long-term benefit of local communities and the public.

The CMC worked diligently to garner support for the conservationists’ vision for the Plateau. The vision establishes quiet recreation and conservation of the rare and imperiled species as priorities, and calls for no gas development on the cliffs or plateau top.

The BLM is expected to release a Draft Environmental Impact Statement in February 2003 detailing the alternatives and identifying a preferred management plan. For more information on the Roan Plateau planning procedures, people can visit the BLM’s website at www.co.blm. gov/gsra/roanplateau.htm or Co-lo-rado Wilderness Network’s website at www.cowildernessnetwork.org. P