Colorado’s Flawed Proposal
Colorado has approximately 14.5 million acres of national forests, roughly 4.4 million acres of which are Inventoried Roadless Areas as identified by the U.S. Forest Service. These undeveloped forestlands serve as prime watersheds, important fish and wildlife habitat and havens for outdoor recreation. Because of their value, the Roadless Area Conservation Rule was issued in 2001 to protect the nation’s 58.6 million acres of national forest roadless areas in Colorado and across the country. Millions of Americans have expressed their support for this popular conservation policy, including President Barack Obama.
Backed by special interests, the state is proposing a loophole laden plan that would undercut the 2001 rule on national forests in Colorado. If adopted, it would give these national forests fewer protections than those in any other state and open up some of Colorado’s best backcountry to road-building for coal mining, oil and gas drilling, and other environmental harm. Colorado’s proposal would:
- Allow development of 100 new oil and gas leases, many with new roads, pipelines and other industrial infrastructure, to move forward in some of Colorado’s best backcountry, such as Clear Fork Divide and Thompson Creek.
- Allow new roads to be built for construction of a new coal mine, inside the Priest Mountain/Currant Creek Roadless Area, considered by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife agency to be prime habitat for deer, elk and black bear.
- Create new bureaucratic road designations called – long-term temporary roads – that could last up to 30 years or more and be built without proper environmental analysis or public input even in the most valuable fish and wildlife habitat.
- Allow new roads for utility and water conveyance structures, including dams – thus authorizing new harmful disturbances in roadless areas.
- Direct limited resources to address wildfire danger far from homes and communities – where science and research indicate it is most effective in protecting public health and safety – by allowing broad discretion for logging and road-building deep in the backcountry.
- Eliminate the mandatory requirement to preserve roadless characteristics in the face of road-building, logging, mining or oil and gas drilling by making such protections discretionary.
Please urge Governor Bill Ritter not to move forward with this flawed approach that would sell Colorado’s backcountry and future generations short. Let’s give Colorado’s national forests protections that measure up to the 2001 Roadless Area Conservation Rule.
