in this issue rock-bottom lease bids raise further questions to washington in april to discuss the...

Have you got $2 in your pocket? If so, you could drop it on a

candy bar or a cup of coffee – or on a one-acre natural-gas lease on federal land.

Well, maybe that’s not your thing, but the bargain wasn’t lost on the oil and gas companies who leased up the

Thompson Divide, southwest of Carbon-dale.

In 2003, Houston-based SG Inter-ests bought natural-gas leases totaling about 15,000 acres for the paltry price of a candy bar per acre. To be clear, the company didn’t buy the land itself – it only bought the right to apply for permission to drill on it, and it must pay annual rent to maintain that right.

But still, two bucks an acre? Really?It happens that $2 per acre is the min-

imum bid for a minerals lease on federal lands. If a lease sells for that amount, it means there were no other competing bids; nobody else was interested.

We always thought $2 an acre sounded low. We really started won-dering when, in 2008, leases on the nearby Roan Plateau sold for an average

of $2,084 per acre – a thousand times more. And you can imagine our surprise when, in response to talk about a pos-sible lease buyout last year, company representatives suggested that SG’s Thompson Divide leases might be worth $1 billion!

Well, now comes news that SG In-terests and another company, Gunnison Energy, engaged in illegal bid-rigging on

Get ready for Naturalist Nights - see schedule, page 7

TWO BUCKS AN ACRE

Rock-bottom lease bids raise further questions about plans to develop the Thompson Divide.

June 2012

protecting wild places and wildlife, for their sake – and ours

In this issue

Roadless Rule endgame 2

Avalanche mine victory 3

Rigged bids and drill rigs 4

$2.5 million to save the Thompson Divide 5

Writing their own rules 7

Central Mountains time 8

Oil shale: not ready 10

The Roan’s day in court 11

All-new upcoming events 12

Donor hall of fame 13

Wilderness Workshop Hike Series 9

CONTINUED ON NExT pagE

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Wild Works | JUNE 20122

at least four leases in the North Fork Valley in 2005. (The whistleblower in the case alleges that the compa-nies obtained a total of 22 leases in this way, including six in the Thomp-son Divide area – see page 4.)

The Department of Justice says the companies were prepared to pay up to $300 per acre for at least one of the parcels, but by agreeing not to bid against each other they got it for…that’s right, $2 an acre.

Considering that about half these leases were let in violation of the Roadless Rule (see below), the fact that TDC has made an offer for the leases (page 5), and the generally poor handling of lease procedures by the BLM (page 7) – it all makes you wonder, what’s the rush to develop?

TWO BUCKS FROM pagE 1

I n early May, the US Forest Service released the all-but-final

version of the Colorado Roadless Rule – an inferior form of protection for the state’s roadless areas that we and our partners have been trying to improve for the past six years.

Administration officials promised that this state-specific rule would be at least as strong as the federal 2001 Roadless Area Conservation Rule that it’s supposed to replace in Colorado. We’ve continually held it to that standard, and with your loud and clear support, we’ve managed

to get a Colorado Rule that’s a whole lot better than what we started with. But it still falls short in several important ways.

The May 2 release was followed by a 30-day final review – what WW staff attorney Peter Hart calls a “look-before-you-leap period” that allows for only very specific, demonstrably needed revisions.

Along with partner groups Earth-justice and The Wilderness Society, we focused our efforts on just one issue: clarifying the wording in a couple of passages to ensure that so-called “gap” leases will be treated the same in the Colorado Rule as they are in the 2001 Rule. Fixing this wording is a major deal for us, since half the leases in the Thomp-son Divide fall under this category. It could also protect the federal gov-ernment from potential legal confu-sion and challenges down the road. As of press time, we were awaiting publication of the final Rule.

For the record, here’s a summary of the shortcomings we see in the Colorado Roadless Rule:

“Gap” leases. From 2001 to 2006, when the original (federal) Roadless Rule was tied up in the courts, the Forest Service allowed the BLM to issue oil and gas leases in roadless areas, including some in the Thompson Divide. These leases should have carried stipulations prohibiting the construction of roads within the roadless areas, but many didn’t. The ’01 Rule has since been upheld in the courts, but the status of leases from this “gap” period remains unresolved.

Throughout the process we’ve asked the Forest Service to address this issue. Instead, the almost-final rule punts on it – kicking the can down the road and forcing us to challenge projects on a case-by-case basis through a process that is struc-turally biased in favor of the agency and industry.

“Upper tier” protections. Earlier in the process, the Forest Service, realizing that the public was concerned that the Colorado

ROADLESS RULE ENDGAMEWe’re making a last-ditch effort to close a gas-lease loophole.

WW’s Peter Hart finds that a sheaf of rolled-up maps works well for training lawmakers to do the right thing. He and Thompson Divide Coalition board member Jock Jacober traveled to Washington in April to discuss the implications of the new Colorado Roadless Rule for natural gas develop-ment in our area. Jo

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Rule was shaping up to be weaker than the federal one, introduced upper and lower tiers of protection. The idea was that, given the myriad exceptions in the rule, to make it “on balance” as strong as the 2001 Rule, some areas would have to be given higher protections.

Problem is, upper-tier protection applies to only about a quarter of the 4.2 million acres covered by the rule – that means three-quarters of Colorado’s roadless areas will now be managed to a weaker standard than under the 2001 Rule. Add in the fact that some upper-tier areas are already protected through other designations, and this Colorado Rule simply doesn’t balance with the 2001 Rule.

Exceptions for logging. The semi-final Rule allows logging up to 1.5 miles inside any roadless area to reduce fuels, and for an unlimited distance to protect

watersheds and “to maintain or restore” ecosystems.

This exception was justified on the grounds that the bark beetle infestation may require emergency removal of trees. But there’s now broad consensus among local and agency officials that the limited resources available for tree removal should be focused on areas adjacent to homes, communities and critical infra-structure. None of these exist 1.5 miles inside a roadless area.

Exceptions for coal mining. The semi-final rule specifically allows “tem-porary” roads for coal mining on 19,000 currently roadless acres in the North Fork Valley. Though the coal is mined under-ground, roads are needed on the surface above to construct methane vents. That’s 19,000 acres of roadless land that’s being sacrificed for production of the dirtiest energy source.

THANKS TO YOU...

JUNE 2012 | Wild Works 3

AVALANCHE MINE VICTORY

F ollowing our recommendation, the White River National Forest in

March decided to restrict operations at an alabaster mine in the Avalanche Creek valley to protect a struggling bighorn sheep herd.

Operators of the White Banks Mine had request-ed a 20-year permit to operate year-round and around the clock. Noting that its deci-sion was “in response to the key issue raised about potential impacts to bighorn sheep during critical winter periods,” Aspen-Sopris District Ranger Scott Snelson prohibited mining between Dec. 1 and April 30, as well as outside of daylight hours. Additionally, he granted only an initial five-year per-

mit, extendable to 20 years if the mining company can demonstrate that its opera-

tions won’t harm the sheep.The company has ap-pealed, claiming that

the restrictions make its business uneconomic.

Protecting the environment doesn’t necessarily mean just saying no. If busi-nesses are simply required to bear the environmental costs of their activities, the market will fairly decide the out-come.

The Forest Service comes

down on the side of the bighorns.

H ere’s a short list of what we’ve been able to accomplish in the past year,

with your support:

Kept the Thompson Divide free from �further gas leasing and drilling, while supporting efforts for permanent protection.

Challenged oil shale and drilling on �the Roan Plateau.

Sued to get better analysis of the �air-quality impacts of drilling in the Colorado River Valley.

Secured a wilderness proposal from �Sen. Udall spanning three counties and 235,000 acres.

Obtained a more wildlife- and �watershed-friendly travel management plan for the White River National Forest.

Helped steer wildfire/beetle projects �and funding to communities and away from the backcountry.

Launched a collaborative effort with �recreation groups to protect the Sloan Peak area, north of Woody Creek.

Worked to ensure that recreational �hotspots like the Crown and Hay Park aren’t loved to death.

Energy

Wilderness

Forests & wildlife

Recreation


L ast year, the U.S. Department of Justice brought a criminal

prosecution against Tim DeChristo-pher, a young activist who disrupted a federal gas lease sale in Utah by falsely bidding on leases and thereby driving up prices. DeChris-topher is currently serving a two-year prison sentence.

In February, the same Department of Justice proposed a civil settlement

with two companies – SG

Interests and Gunnison Energy – that it found had illegally colluded to drive down bid prices at two federal lease sales in our area. Their pen-alty? Um, well, they have to pay the government what it calculates they should have paid in the first place.

No jail time. No damages. No admission of wrongdoing. And they even get to keep the leases!

“This ‘fine’ is nothing more than a wrist slap, and will only provide an

incentive for companies to do more of the same in the future,” WW staff attorney Peter Hart said of the pro-posed settlement. “It calls into question just how seri-ous DOJ is about clamp-ing down on bid rigging – which we believe may be a systemic problem.”

What’s more, Peter notes, the DOJ chose not to pursue most of the bid-ding violations alleged in the original whistleblower complaint. The settlement concerns only four bids that were made at two quarterly auctions in early 2005; the whistleblower alleged that the compa-nies colluded in the same way on another 18 bids in 2005-06.

Troublingly, six of these additional leases lie within

the Thompson Divide. They’re among the leases that the Thomp-son Divide Coalition has recently offered to reimburse leaseholders for, and that we’ve been trying to get invalidated on the grounds that they may have been let in violation of the Roadless Area Conservation Rule.

We don’t know why the Depart-ment of Justice hasn’t taken action on the additional 18 leases. We don’t know how many other leases

in our region might be tainted by the same illegal bidding. But we think the proposed settlement stinks, and we and four other Western Slope conservation groups have told the DOJ so in a formal protest letter.

In the letter, we urge the DOJ to impose meaningful fines that will actually deter (rather than encour-age) further bid-rigging, to launch a full investigation into the additional 18 leases, and to consider criminal prosecution. Yes, the companies are innocent until proven guilty, but the evidence here is strong and the stakes are high.

The letter also requests that the DOJ invalidate the leases in ques-tion, since the companies shouldn’t be allowed to enjoy their ill-gotten gains and can’t be relied on “to act as good stewards of the public trust.”

Incidents like this raise serious questions about the trustworthiness of the companies that are being

RIGGED BIDS AND DRILL RIGS

Why we’re calling for further scrutiny of collusion by gas companies.

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Thompson Divide areaLeasing unitsDrilling applicationsFined illegally bid leasesOther alleged illegal bidsReimbursement offer leasesWilderness areasBLM landsForest Service lands

Legend


Three months after sending letters of intent to six natural gas companies, the Thompson

Divide Coalition’s proposed $2.5 million lease buyout is still on the table.

The offer represents a crucial step in the three-year-long campaign to protect the 220,000-acre Thompson Divide. Several companies have re-sponded, and TDC continues to pursue proactive resolutions with industry.

Since its launch in 2009, the coalition has pursued two interrelated strategies to permanently protect the Thompson Divide: securing an act of Congress “withdrawing” the area from availabil-ity for future leasing, and eliminating the threat of development on existing leases. Given TDC’s commitment to respecting valid existing rights,

allowed to develop our public lands. SG Interests, one of the two firms implicated in this scandal, has applied to the BLM to “unitize” 18 leases in the heart of the Thompson Divide – a step that would result in a long-term development plan for 30,000 acres, and hold soon-to-expire leases well into the future. Shouldn’t SG’s record of illegal conduct prompt more scrutiny of its plans for such a critical and contro-versial parcel?

Federal public lands and the mineral estate under them belong to all of us, the American taxpayers. The federal government leases the right to explore and develop parts

of this estate on our behalf. It’s a specialized field where industry has a great deal more information – and financial incentive – than the bu-reaucrats. The only thing that keeps the process honest and ensures a fair deal for taxpayers is competitive bidding. If the bidding process is found to be tainted, government had better take very determined action to punish the guilty parties in order to send a strong signal that gaming the system doesn’t pay.

Sadly, that doesn’t appear to be what’s happening in this case. We and our partners see this as a bad le-gal precedent and a moral outrage.

In our protest letter we pointedly

contrast the DOJ’s handling of this settlement with its much harsher prosecution of Tim DeChristopher. Justice must be seen to be fair above all, yet these two cases clearly sug-gest that the system is much more determined to deter individual civil disobedience than corporate cor-ruption. That’s a doubly bad signal to send.

As of press time, the Department of Justice hadn’t responded to our protest. Should it decide to leave the settlement unchanged, we’ll con-sider intervening or seeking amicus status from the court to air concerns that the settlement doesn’t protect the public interest.

$2.5M TO SAVE THE THOMPSON DIVIDEA proposed lease buyout is a crucial step in removing the

drilling threat.

The Thompson Divide Coalition has made offers totaling $2.5 million to buy out 44 leases in the 220,000-acre backcountry area southwest of Carbondale.

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achieving the second goal requires some diplomacy.

The letters sent in February are the most recent attempt to resolve the devel-opment threat by outlining fair terms for reimbursement for undeveloped leases in the area. To prepare the letters, WW’s Peter Hart worked with TDC’s Judy Fox

Perry to research the amounts companies have paid to the federal government to purchase and hold the leases.

The letters propose a solution intended to work for all parties. Natural gas prices are in the tank, companies are reining in operations and focusing on the most productive areas, the Thompson Divide is a rugged area with high development costs and unproven reserves, and public opposition and possible lawsuits threaten to add to the costs (both financial and reputational). Selling the leases lets the companies make a graceful exit, poten-

tially coming out as heroes rather than villains.

“We believe this is a reasonable proposition,” said TDC president Chuck Ogilby. “It acknowledges the investments these companies have made, and gives them a way to support an initiative that has broad community support.”

The reimbursement offers total about $2.5 million. Public records indicate that Antero Resources spent the most buy-ing and retaining leases in the Divide, $817,000. SG Interests, which holds half of the leases and a third of the total acre-age, has spent less – $578,000 – due to much lower per-acre bids on its leases.

The letters of intent contain two im-portant contingencies. First, since TDC doesn’t currently have the cash in hand to buy the leases, it would be given 120 days after the signing of any contract to raise the money. Second, payments

would be held in escrow until the pas-sage of Congressional legislation to per-manently protect the Thompson Divide.

While TDC pursues this lease buyout and withdrawal legislation, we at the Wilderness Workshop are tasked with keeping the Thompson Divide from be-ing drilled or further leased. Hence the many irons in the fire described in this newsletter.

$2.5 MILLION FROM pREvIOUs pagE

HOW YOU CAN HELP

We urge everyone to write their members of Congress to support the Thompson Divide Coalition’s reim-bursement offer and related with-drawal legislation. For a super-easy online form, go to our action page:

wildernessworkshop.org/action

Check out our new and improved website!

www.wildernessworkshop.org

www.facebook.com/WildernessWorkshop

We’ve completely overhauled our website, featuring a more accessible lay-out, new features and updated content. At the new homepage you’ll also find a feed from our Facebook page, where we post frequent updates and where we encourage friends to post their own photos and comments. Check them both out at:

Selling the leases lets the companies make a graceful exit, potentially coming out as heroes rather than villains.


Somewhere in a federal office in metro Denver, a Bureau of Land

Management employee is deciding the fate of the Thompson Divide.

The decision is whether to al-low Houston-based SG Interests to “unitize” 18 leases stretching from Sunlight Peak to Coal Basin. Ac-cording to the BLM, this is a routine exercise that requires no environ-mental review or public input, because it will only result in a more efficient plan for drilling the area. Plus (says the BLM), if the company fails to live up to the unit agreement then it can lose its leases.

But another unit proposal elsewhere in the Thompson Divide illustrates how the BLM’s practice doesn’t jibe with its theory, and how easy it is for companies to exploit the unitization process.

In 1996, Delta Petroleum leased about 8,000 acres of National Forest land in the upper reaches of Divide Creek, on the western side of the Thompson Divide. In 2003, with the leases nearing expiration, Delta applied to merge them into what would be known as the Willow Creek Unit (see map on page 4). For the company, unitization offered an easy way to extend the leases; for the BLM, it enabled more coordi-nated development of the area. The agency approved the unit in 2004.

Delta drilled a test well in the first year, but never brought it into production, and did nothing further

to fulfill the terms of its unit agree-ment. It later sold its leases to Willsource Enterprises. The BLM granted five consecutive one-year extensions to the companies on the requirement to drill an “obligatory well.” The sixth time, in 2009, we objected, and the BLM denied the extension. That should have been the end of the matter. The unit and all of Willsource’s leases should have been terminated, except for a small parcel surrounding the origi-nal test well.

Unfortunately, it appears that the BLM never filed the proper bureau-cratic death certificate for the unit

or the leases. And now, two years later, Willsource has several drilling permits pending with the BLM on land that it should no longer have the right to drill on.

Welcome to the murky world of federal mineral leasing, where in-dustry accommodation is the name of the game, and public account-ability runs a distant second.

“Industry basically wrote these rules, which are hard to enforce and easy to manipulate,” notes WW staff attorney Peter Hart. After examin-ing the record of BLM actions on

WRITING THEIR OWN RULESThe BLM says to trust it on the Lake Ridge Unit, but its handling

of another unit casts doubt on the process.

CONTINUED ON pagE 10

The BLM granted five consecutive extensions to the operator of the East Willow Unit, yet now, two years after after its unit was supposed to have been terminat-ed, the company is applying to drill.

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The Hidden Gems Campaign crossed an important and exciting threshold

on Feb. 26, when Sen. Mark Udall held a press conference in Frisco to unveil what he’s calling the Central Mountains Outdoor Heritage Proposal.

The announcement was the culmination of years of work by the campaign to refine the Hidden Gems package and work with the Senator to the point that he was willing to embrace it and make it his own. In terms of both scope and political promise, the Central Mountains proposal is the strongest legislative vehicle for wilderness that we’ve

seen in this region in three decades.Sen. Udall’s proposal builds on the bill

that Rep. Jared Polis introduced in the House last spring. It includes all the same areas and acreages in Polis’s district (Eagle and Summit counties), plus all Hidden Gems proposal areas in Pitkin County – all together, 32 separate parcels total-ing 235,000 acres. It’s a really substantial public-lands proposal, solid and well-vet-ted thanks to the extensive public outreach by the Hidden Gems campaign team and by Polis’s office.

Not all of it is slated for wilderness designation; 87,000 acres (37 percent) are billed as so-called “special management areas,” and 8,500 acres (4 percent) are “companion areas.” The special manage-ment areas are in essence wilderness designations with the single exception of allowing military helicopter training flights and landings by the High Altitude Avia-tion Training Site out of the Eagle County Airport. The companion areas, added to the proposal at the request of mountain bikers in Summit County, are worded to allow mountain biking while adopting wilderness-level protections in every other respect.

Sen. Udall and his staff put a great deal of thought and preparation into the announcement, simultaneously posting a comprehensive set of maps and informa-tion online and publishing an op-ed in the Denver Post. The Senator followed up a few weeks later with an email to constitu-ents, sharing his passion for wilderness and inviting feedback on the proposal.

It’s been wonderful to see Mr. Udall dive back into public lands protection, not only

with the Central Mountains but also with initiatives for the San Juan Mountains and Browns Canyon on the Arkansas River. As he noted in his email, he’s been a back-country enthusiast all his life; what he didn’t mention was that he’s also the only member of our Colorado Congressional delegation with actual experience get-ting wilderness legislation passed (Rocky Mountain National Park Wilderness, which he sponsored when he was in the House).

Meanwhile, there are tantalizing hints that our other Colorado Senator, Michael Bennet, is starting to work on a package of Gunnison County areas. We’ll keep you updated as this unfolds.

VIP support for Sen. Udall’s proposal got off to a great start in April when Vail Resorts announced its endorsement. Vail Resorts joins the Aspen Skiing Co. and more than 450 other local businesses that have endorsed either the Hidden Gems or Central Mountains proposal, thanks to dili-gent work by field staff Will Roush in Pitkin County and Susie Kincade in Eagle County. It’s an impressive list that effectively makes the argument that preserving wilderness is better for the local economy than selling off our heritage to extractive industries for a short-term boom.

That message was driven home in Janu-ary, when more than a dozen business leaders from around the region met with Rep. Scott Tipton – at their request – to convey their support for the Hidden Gems. Rep. Tipton’s district includes the Pitkin and Gunnison portions of the proposal.

With the emergence of Sen. Udall’s proposal, the Hidden Gems Campaign is making the transition that all wilderness

campaigns go through as their visions start to take legislative shape. The campaign will keep advocating for all the Hidden Gems areas and trying to get more of them in-cluded in legislation, but from now on the emphasis will be on supporting the actual legislation. Expect to see and hear more about the Central Mountains (a name that’s got a nice ring, by the way), and less about the Hidden Gems.

Exactly how this all plays out is impos-sible to predict – all bets are off in an election year. We’re pacing ourselves for the long haul, while continuing to get our Congressional ducks in a row to be ready for any short-term opportunity.

Wild Works | JUNE 20121 JUNE 2012 | Wild Works 1

WILD

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SSCENTRAL MOUNTAINS TIME

The Hidden Gems Campaign is rallying around Senator Mark Udall’s wilderness proposal Learn.

Hike. Discover.

Guided hikes into proposed wilderness areas. Join us to ex-plore these special places!

Sat, June 16 | Perham Creek, near Carbondale

Sun, June 17 | Seven Castles Creek, near Basalt

Sun, June 17 | Squaw Creek loop, south of Avon

Sun, June 24 | Dillon Pinnacles, east of Gunnison

Sat. July 7 | Carbon Trail (Whetstone), just outside Crested Butte

Sat, July 7 | Hay Park birding hike, near Basalt and Carbondale

Tues, July 10 | Hunter Creek wildflower hike, just outside Aspen

Sun, July 15 | Spraddle Creek, north of Vail

Sat. July 21 | Green Lake Trail (Whetstone), outside of Crested Butte

Sat, July 21 | Treasure Mountain, outside of Marble

Sun, July 22 | Seven Castles Creek, near Basalt

Sat, July 28 | Lost Lake (Red Table Mountain), south of Eagle

Wed, Aug 1 | Hay Park full-moon hike, near Basalt and Carbondale

Sat, Aug 4 | Hoosier Ridge, near Breckenridge

Sun, Aug 5 | Huntsman Ridge, near McClure Pass

Sun, Aug 12 | Lower Piney, north of Avon

Sat-Sun, Aug 18-19 | Red Table overnight backpack, north of Ruedi Reservoir

Sat, Aug 18 | Acorn Creek, north of Frisco

Sat, Aug 25 | Spraddle Creek, north of Vail

Sun, Aug 26 | Petroleum Lake, up Lincoln Creek near Aspen

Sat, Sept 15 | Bulldog Creek, near Carbondale

Sat, Sept 22 | Perham Creek, near Carbondale

Learn more & sign up: WildernessWorkshop.org/hikes

Contact: [email protected] | 970-963-3977

Wilderness WorkshopHike Series 2012

FREE

Sen. Mark Udall announcing his Central Mountains proposal in February.

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www.markudall.senate.gov/outdoorheritage

HOW YOU CAN HELP

Sen. Udall needs to hear from you now! Whether he decides to introduce legislation based on his Central Moun-tains proposal will depend on the feedback he gets from constituents. If you haven’t already, please show your support at (follow the link to the Central Mountains page):


Willsource’s Willow Creek Unit, obtained through a Freedom of Information Act request, Peter con-cludes that “they just aren’t comply-ing with their own regulations, from what I can tell.”

Meanwhile, a decision on the much larger Lake Ridge Unit could come down any day. And despite the BLM’s assurances, why should we believe that this unit will be handled any better?

SG Interests has the same motiva-

tion. It wants to extend its leases with a minimum of outlay and public involvement. And it has every reason to believe that, once it gets its unit, it can string the BLM along until it’s ready to drill or until it can flip the leases to another company.

The rules of the game matter. They may seem arcane and techni-cal, but that’s what’s necessary in industries like energy (or finance), where companies have multi-billion-dollar incentives to try to get

their way. Of course, the rules are only as

good as the regulators that enforce them. That’s why it’s so important to have organizations like the Wilder-ness Workshop watchdogging the agencies to ensure they do their jobs. And if the rules are stacked in industry’s favor, we watchdogs have to be that much more vigilant.

Rest assured, we’re making every effort to ensure the Willow Creek Unit is terminated and the proposed Lake Ridge Unit is denied. Please make sure you’re on our email list to get alerts about how you can help.

THEIR OWN RULES FROM pagE 7

NOT READY FOR PRIME TIME

P rops to all of you who attended the BLM’s oil shale open house

in Silt in March – the only one held in Colorado – and to the many more who sent emails opposing oil shale development through our action page.

The BLM is now shopping around a revised plan that resulted from a 2008 lawsuit brought by 16 conser-vation groups, including the Wilder-ness Workshop. It’s a damn sight better than the previous one, with the acreage available for oil shale

leasing in Colorado reduced by 90 percent, to 35,300 acres.

But, frankly, we still don’t think any public lands should be opened to commercial oil shale development at this time. The companies that are working on test plots in the hill coun-try north of the Roan Plateau are still a long way from figuring out how to extract oil from the rock in commercial quantities, and in the meantime it’s impos-

sible to assess the potentially serious impacts on the environment, human health and communities.

May 4 was the deadline for pub-lic comments on the Programmatic Environmental Impact Statement that the BLM committed to doing to settle the lawsuit.

WW was part of the team coordinated by Western Resource Advocates that submitted com-ments on the draft PEIS on behalf of the conservation community; WW compiled the Colorado section. The final EIS should be released this fall or winter.

Colorado’s oil shale deposits are concentrated in the area between Parachute and Meeker. While this is somewhat outside of WW’s service area, the prospect of commercial-scale oil shale development poses a threat to our region’s environment (and the global climate) that could dwarf that of gas drilling.

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The area being considered for oil shale development is known as the “mule deer factory of Colorado.”


The Roan Plateau is back in the news, with a judge now weighing arguments in a lawsuit filed by a

coalition of environmental groups, including WW. During oral arguments before U.S. District Judge

Marcia Krieger in late May, our attorneys contended that the BLM never seriously considered more ecologically sensitive alternatives to drilling the top of the plateau, and that it failed to follow its own rules on analyzing the impacts of drilling.

The Roan Plateau became a conservation cause cé-lèbre in 2003, as the BLM considered plans for oil and gas development in the 73,000-acre area north of Rifle. Despite 98 percent of public comments opposing drill-ing on the biologically diverse top of the plateau, the plan approved by the agency in 2007 called for leasing every acre and the construction of up to 1,570 wells. (Leaseholders are now projecting more than 3,000 wells atop the plateau.)

The conservation groups joined forces in 2008 to sue the BLM and four oil and gas companies in an attempt to block the lease sale. The sale went ahead, but devel-opment of the leases was put on hold while the parties tried to negotiate a settlement. The settlement talks broke down last year, sending the case back to court.

Rising 3,000 feet above the Colorado River Valley, the Roan Plateau is an island of relatively undisturbed habitat surrounded by intense gas drilling activity. The BLM itself identified four areas on the Roan, totaling over 36,000 acres, as being eligible for protection as Areas of Critical Environmental Concern. The alternative plan that the BLM failed to consider would have spared

those areas.Our suit also

claims that the BLM did only a cursory job of analyzing air quality impacts, as if the development of the Roan were happening in isola-tion and not adding to the pollution being created by all the other energy development in the region.

(And that’s only half the story, by the way. In a separate lawsuit, WW is charging that the BLM compounded the error by subsequently “cutting and pasting” its Roan air-quality analysis to justify approving another 1,400 wells in the Colorado River Valley.)

Finally, our suit argues that the BLM used a planning horizon of only 20 years, which is clearly inadequate for a development of this scale. The agency says it did that because it has a “dismal record” of planning further than 20 years out.

Judge Krieger has indicated that she won’t rule on whether the BLM’s plan is any good or not, but simply on whether the agency followed proper procedures. Of course, if it had followed proper procedures then maybe it wouldn’t have produced such a terrible plan.

A judge will rule on our lawsuit opposing drilling on top of the Roan Plateau.

THE ROAN’S DAY IN COURT


Slo

an S

hoem

aker

WW executive director Sloan Shoemaker testified before a joint House field hearing in Montrose on May 10. As suggested by the hearing’s title – “Logs in the Road: Eliminating Federal Red Tape and Excessive Litigation to Create Healthy Forests, Jobs and Abundant Water and Power Supplies” – it was pretty clearly intended to reach a preordained conclusion. Sloan was there to counter the myth of environmental obstructionism by speaking about his collaborative work with the Colorado Bark Beetle Cooperative.

Bru

ce G

ordo

n/E

cofli

ght

The Roan Plateau towers above the I-70 corridor northwest of Rifle.

Facing a tough crowd


We have an action-packed summer in store for you this year, starting

with the opening reception of our Artist in Wilderness exhibit at Vectra Bank in Aspen on Thursday, June 21, from 5:30

to 7:30 p.m. (Additionally, there will be an Artist in Wilderness fundraiser at a private home on Wednesday, July 25; please contact Dave Reed if you’re inter-ested in attending.)

The show will feature works by the seven artists who have participated in the program to date. The Artist in Wilder-

ness program was established in 2008 in memory of WW co-founder Dottie Fox, who combined her talent as a water-colorist with her passion for preserving wilderness.

On a related note, appli-cations are due July 13 for this fall’s Artist in Wilderness residency, which will be for a professional three-dimensional or land artist. For details, please see our website.

The Wilderness Picnic is being reincarnated this year as Wildfest, and you are not going to want to miss it! We’re talking continuous music and entertainment with the incom-parable Halden Woffard and the Hi-Beams and a host of local acts, all in the bohemian setting of the Flying Dog Ranch in Woody Creek. Mark your cal-endar for Saturday, July 14 – see

the back cover for details.For those of you who like to get dirt

under your fingernails, our next habitat restoration project will be at Anderson Lake on Saturday, Sept. 8. The mission is to transform an old mining road into a hiking trail as it traverses subalpine meadows and wetlands. Anderson Lake

is near the end of the very rough road to the ghost town of Ruby; because it’s so remote, we’re encouraging volunteers to go up early and camp out Friday night so that they’re already there the next morn-ing. We’ll organize car pooling from Aspen.

Finally, we’re hoping to put together a public event with conservation elders Dave Foreman and Michael Soulé on Friday, Sept. 28 – stay tuned for details.


WW volunteers helped the Forest Service plant seedlings at one of our project days at Avalanche Campground in April.

Mel

anie

Fin

an “Up Hunter Creek,” by Richard White – one of the works in our Artist in Wilderness show at Vectra Bank in Aspen, opening on Thursday, June 21.

ALL-NEW UPCOMING EVENTS

If you missed any of this winter’s Natu-ralist Nights presentations, fear not – we had them videoed by GrassRoots TV, and you can view them anytime at our website.

We’re grateful to the business sponsors who made this possible: Alpine Bank,

Aspen Skiing Company, Bristlecone Mountain Sports, Carol Dopkin Realty, Carbondale Days Inn, Finbarr’s Irish Pub, Gorsuch Ltd., Harry Teague Architects, Ken Ransford Law Office, Reese Henry & Co., St. Moritz Lodge, Stirling Homes and the Ute Mountaineer.

Naturalist Nights online, anytime


We’re holding a new-mem-ber drive this summer. Our

goal is to increase membership to 1,000 by the end of the year (it’s currently at about 700), and you can help us by introducing your friends to the Wilderness Work-shop.

Do it for the land, do it for the critters, do it for your karma – but just in case that’s not enough, here are a couple of incentives:

Bring a friend to Wildfest on �July 14 (see the back page), and we’ll enter both you and your friend in a prize drawing for cool stuff donated by local businesses. If your friend joins

WW, you’ll both get two prize drawing tickets.

Encourage friends and family �to join WW via your own page on our website (we’ll set it up for you). At the end of the year, we’ll give special prizes to the top three new-member recruit-ers.

Also, we’re looking for one or more individuals who would be willing to match donations made by new members. For more information, to get your own WW web page, or to suggest any other ideas, please contact development director Dave Reed at 963-3977 or [email protected].

$25,000+Aron and Jessica Ralston

$10,000-25,000Aspen Skiing Company

Environment Foundation

Jim Bonesteel and Caroline Cochener

Peter Looram

Pamela Maguire

Kelly and Denis O’Donovan

Pitkin County

Wyss Peace Foundation

$5,000-9,999

Cherry Creek Schools Foundation, in honor of Aron Ralston

Marcia Corbin

McBride Family/Aspen Business Center Foundation

Felicity Huffman

Ernst and Wilma Martens Foundation

Lynn Nichols and Jim Gilchrist Family Advised Fund of the Aspen Community Foundation

Garry and Sharon Snook

Peter and Robin Van Domelen

$1,000-4,999Anonymous

Jim Aresty and Nancy Pickard

T.A. Barron

Shelley Burke and Al Nemoff

David and Gay Campbell*, in memory of Harold Hahn

John and Laurel Catto/Catto Charitable Foundation

Chelsea Congdon and James Brundige

Mary Dominick and Sven Coomer

Marj Perry and Bill Fales

Lucy Hahn

Joe Henry

Moore Huffman, Jr.

Ellen Hunt

Marianne and Dick Kipper

Johno and Sunni McBride

Owen McHaney

Marcie and Robert Musser Advised Fund of the Aspen Community Foundation

David Newberger

Marty Pickett and Edgell Pyles

R.H. Crossland Foundation

Ford and Susan Schumann

Jill Soffer

DONOR HALL OF FAME



The Wilderness Workshop wishes to thank the follow-ing generous people who have made donations since the previous newsletter. New members are indicated by an asterisk (*).

HELP US GROW OUR MEMBERSHIP

Welcome to summer interns Samantha Pickard (pictured), who’s double majoring in environmental studies and environmental education at Prescott College, and Steven DeWitt, who comes to us with a wealth of photography and social media experience. And a fond farewell to longtime board member Steve Child, who is running for Pitkin County com-missioner.

Christin Cooper and Mark Taché

Elissa Topol and Lee Osterman

Town of Carbondale

Zac Weinberg

$500-999Alpine Bank

Randy and Althy Brimm

Bristlecone Mountain Sports

Annie Cooke

Gesine Crandall

Days Inn

Finbarr’s Irish Pub

Julie Goldstein and Tony O’Rourke/Rose Community Foundation

Jane and Dick Hart

Charles and Linda Ho

Marcella Larsen

Judy Fox-Perry and Will Perry*

Frank Peters and Marjory Musgrave

St. Moritz Lodge

Karin and Harry Teague

Dr. Rick Voorhees

Lisa Wuerker

$250-499Anonymous

Donna Fisher and Skip Behrhorst

Beth Cashdan and Paul D’Amato

Dan and Tita McCarty Advised Fund at the Aspen Community Foundation

Carol Dopkin

Susan and George Fesus

Lynn and Judy Hancock

Ann Harvey and Mike Campbell

Kristen and Casady Henry

Gail and Phil Holstein

Sandy Jackson

Ann and Sam Johnson

Sheldon and Marianne Lubar Charitable Fund of the Lubar Family Foundation

Donna and Tim McFlynn

Kent and Elizabeth Meager

Mary Beth Minion*

Pat Spitzmiller

Deidre Stancioff

Lisa Cashdan and Peter Stein, in honor of Beth Cashdan and Paul D’Amato

Bill Stirling

Jay Webster

Andy Wiessner and Patsy Batchelder

$100-249Bob Adams

Lu Krueger Andersen and Paul Andersen

Paul and Carole Auvil*

Dawn Barton

Richard Beresford

Bruce Berger

Diana Beuttas

Dee Blakewell

Katie Brimm

Gavin Brooke/Land + Shelter

Kay Brunnier

Charlyn Canada

Chalet Lisl Lodge

Maggie Dewolf

Al and Germaine Dietsch

Phyllis and Frank Dobyn

Doris and Chuck Downey

Paul David Ellis

John Fielder

Gina Berko and David Fleisher

Dorothy Frommer

Catherine Porter and James Fuller

Ryland Gardner

Joyce and Bill Gruenberg

Georgia and Andy Hanson

Allyn Harvey

Trautlinde Heater

Sue Helm

Ann Hodges

Janis and George Huggins

Judy Hutchins

David Hyman and Barbara Reid

Leslie and Patrick Johnson

Sylvia Johnson*

Valery and Kearns Kelly

Albert Kern

Nancy Kimbrell and Mario Larouche

Francine and Tag Liebel*

Bill and Carol Lightstone

Patricia Maddalone

Joanie Matranga

Martha and Mike McCoy

Matthew McKenna

Michael McVoy and Michal Brimm

Maggie Pedersen and Bob Millette

Dave and Stephanie Munk

Kathy Farrell and Gordon Neal

Kerry and Ricki Newman

George Newman*

Virginia and Rick Newton

Laurie and Jim Noyes

Bruce Parlette

Peggy Corcillo and Dave Pietsch

Irma Prodinger

Bob Purvis

Pamela Kling and Michael Rausch

Lee Rimel

Kathy and Bill Rodman

Greg Russi

Kenny Ryan

Leslie and Nancy Selzer

Diane and John Stine

Hal Sundin


HIDDEN GEMS DONORSFollowing are donations made to the Hidden Gems Wilderness Campaign, for which WW is the fiscal agent.

$500+Phil Brodsky

Steve and Molly Child

Crystal Valley Environmental Protection Association

Rose and George Gillett

$100-249Art On A Whim, LLC

Art and Elaine Kelton

Axel’s

Brad and Laurel Larson

Alex Marks

John Swomley

Debby Webster and Steve Blanchard

$50-99George and Frances Alderson

Anonymous

Betsy Bowie

Alan and Silvia Danson

Debra Grove

Helen E. McBreen

David and Suzy Pines

Gerry Roehm

Jennifer Rose, in honor of Laura Yale

Terry Sano

Up to $50Todd Bartlett, in honor of Roger

Bartlett

Norma Broten

Sarah Evans, in honor of Bill Evans

Catherine Fahlgren

Mark Chapin and Susie Kincade

Tarren O’Brien, in honor of Roger Bartlett

Maggie Rerucha, in memory of Martha and Jim Fleming

Emilie Sommerville, in memory of Jeanne Francis

DONORS FROM pREvIOUs pagE

Kerek Swanson

Anna Naeser and Gerald Terwilliger

Tom and Roz Turnbull

Gayle and Richard Wells

Pierre and Beth Wille/Tyrolean Lodge

Dexter Williams

Hugh and Mary Wise

King Woodward

Annie Worley

$50-99George and Frances Alderson

Anonymous

Karen Beard

Liz and John Bokram

Rob Burnett

Lee Cassin

Rory and Lucy Cerise

Trish Chew, in memory of Carolyn Purvis

Ned and Jan Cochran

Laurence Cohen

Janet Coursey

Jenifer Cramer

Lisa Dancing-Light

Rachel Dayton

Stephen and Jennifer Ellsperman

Scott Ely*

Mallory Family

Kyle Ferrell

Anne and Phil Freedman

Mark Fuller

Elizabeth Fulton

Christy Garfield

Jon Gibans

Connie Overton and James Gilliam

Leslie, James and Don Gorman

Kristen and Wally Graham*

Les Gray

Doug and Peggy Graybeal

Shelley Supplee and Hawk Greenway

Mary Jo Kimbrough and Jim Harrison

Casady Henry

Richard and Sheryl Herrington

Katherine Hubbard

John Isaacs

Sarah Johnson

Stephen and C.P. Kanipe

Steve Knous

Pete Kolbenschlag

Laurel Loeb*

Dr. Ann Mass

Nanna Schov and David Mork

Barney and Dot Mulligan

Janean Nutter*

Tom Oken and Janie Lowe

Ginny Parker

Fred and Sandra Peirce

Doc Philip

Pat and Michael Piburn*

Elizabeth and Maris Platais

Bob and Gabriella Rafelson

Glenn Randall

Ty and Terry Reed

Ruth Ross

Susan Rothchild

Jill Sabella

Marius and Clare Sanger

Beth Schaefer

Jill and Michael Scher

Sarah Schmidt

Don Davidson and Sandy Simpson

Sandy and Stephen Stay

Lelia Stege

Sylvia Wendrow and JD Sturgill

Garrett Sullivan and Stephanie Soldner Sullivan

Mimi Teschner

Dr. Diana Tomback

Tom and Donna Ward

Melissa Waters

John Werning

Polly Whitcomb

Garret Zabel*

Up to $49Mary Ballou

David and Janet Boyle

PJ Breslin*

Helen and Roger Carlsen

Laura Kirk and Dave Carpenter

Joy Caudill

Anne Austin-Clapper and Willard Clapper

Kim Coates

Barbara Collins

Douglas and Lynne Denio

Veronica Egan

Janice Estey

Sally and Chris Faison

Adrian Fielder*

Sara Garton

Martin Gerra

Marty Ames and Steve Hach

Kay Hannah

Lois Harlamert-Teegarden

Mary and Nick Harris

Kate and Peter Hart

Amy Harvey*

Adele Hause

Rick Heede*

Robin and Kendall Henry

Ralph Jones

Jillian and Chris Kops

Carlyle Kyzer*

Jane Leddy

Sandy, Mary Lynn and AJ Munro

Darrell Munsell*

Gracie Oliphant

Carrie Podl*, in honor of Jonathan Haberern

Rosine Ribelin

Rachel Richards

Polly Ross

Joanne and Richard Rubinoff

Amy Stokka and Greg Sauer

Cam Scott

Randy Gold and Dawn Shepard

Jean Smith

Tyler, Kim and Lori Spence

Diane and John Stine

Chris Taché

Lynn Tanno

Jan Oen and Don Thompson

Robert and Phyllis Throm

Marina Valenzuela

Joan Eisner and William Vaughan

Carol Werner Grace*

Marilyn Wilmerding*

Ted Zukoski*

P.O. Box 1442Carbondale, CO 81623

Offices in the Third Street Center, 520 S. 3rd St., Carbondale

Tel (970) [email protected]

The Wilderness Workshop’s mis-sion is to protect and conserve the wilderness and natural resources

of the Roaring Fork Watershed, the White River National Forest, and

adjacent lands.

Board of DirectorsSteve Smith, President

Karin Teague, Vice President

Peter Van Domelen, Treasurer

John Emerick, Secretary

Beth CashdanMary Dominick

Cici FoxGinni GalicinaoCharles Hopton

Peter Looram John McBride, Jr.

Tim McFlynn Michael McVoy

Aron RalstonMike StranahanAndy Wiessner

FoundersJoy CaudillDottie Fox

Connie Harvey

StaffSloan Shoemaker, Executive Director

Melanie FinanMichael Gorman

Peter HartDave Reed

David RichieWill Roush


NON-PROFIT ORG

U.S. Postage

PAIDPERMIT NUMBER 62

CARBONDALE, CO

81623

ADDRESS SERVICE REQUESTED

Printed on 100% recycled paper. Please recycle this newsletter - pass it on to a friend!

P.O. BOX 1442CARBONDALE, CO 81623

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