Its an Omnibus Bill to designate more Wilderness, expanded interim protection for areas already set aside, and other goodies........yeah for public lands.

[www.americanwhitewater.org]

Something in my (and desertrat's) western slope area is on the boards too for the "roadless rules". Essentially, Bush is pushing legislation to overturn Clinton's roadless act protecting wilderness quality national forest lands across the country. Here in Colorado, the White River National Forest is under the gun for proposed "long term temporary roads" that would include 67k acres. These roads would give exclusive access to natural gas rigs that would be on a 30 year rotation. Also, outside of Paonia there is another 29k acres that is slated for coal extraction. This is very crucial for these wilderness areas to stay that way for this amendment to the roadless act to be stopped. Already this summer, against Governer Bill Ritter's will, Colorado had to put up thousands of habitat sensitive areas for auction to the gas and oil corporations, bringing in the largest sum of royalties to colorado EVER. There were stipulations put in by Ritter to halt production during migration seasons (fall) to protect the deer and elk populations, but this week the big energy corps got they're way and have full access to these platforms.

Go Clean Energy (in 10 years or less)!!!

Dustin Anderson

Thanks Dustin. The battle rages on...I worked on these and almost every other public land issue out there, mostly BLM stuff, and we (the conservation community and local citizens) did a decent job of getting sensitive parcels denied and keeping industry out of roadless but just holding the line was a victory...the term 'balance' doesnt exist for industry or the top down BLM. There is room for everyone!

The area around Paonia will be a battle, good people working on it. I dont expect much intrusion, but the locals gotta make some noise and be heard. I miss being on the front lines of this stuff sometimes.

And then there is the Roan Plateau.......

Glad yer followin the fight. kudos. keep updating...

Brandon

Roan Plateau will look like swiss cheese in another year. Over a thousand new wells will be drilled over the next decade. That is the primary drilling location opposed by everyone except the ones that work for the energy corps. There are a couple wilderness quality areas that have streams with genetically pure cut throat trout, at least until the silt and runoff chemicals kill them off. It's sad, the voting public seems to be unheard on these issues.

Dustin Anderson

That was my baby, one of my favorite projects. I lived on a ranch outside of Rifle for a summer, and led a lot of hikes to the falls for groups, local citizens and media. Nice escape from the desert in the summer...wildlife and trout thrive up there. The flyover was cool!
The amount of media for that area has been impressive, but the decision is made from DC. Not very balanced.

[www.saveroanplateau.org]

First step...check. Passed the Senate...

[www.americanwhitewater.org]