PIVOTAL POINT

Eyed by Industry, Walked by Wildlife, Roadless Areas at Heart of Gas Battle

By David Frey, 8-08-06

Atop an unnamed ridge on the western fringe of the White River National Forest, the twin peaks of Mount Sopris rose to the east, knobby Haystack Mountain to the west. Two national forests, two river valleys and three counties come together here. It’s a critical juncture, environmentalists say – a crossroads for wildlife that joins isolated valleys on this treeless crest. The aspen grove below may be the largest in the country, they say; the spruce and fir make up the White River National Forest’s largest old-growth stand.

It’s a place where energy companies are considering drilling, and where environmentalists hope to block them.

“This area right here is what connects this area –” said Tony Prendergast, gesturing to the forest reaching down to the floor of the Crystal, “– to all that.” He swept his arm across a landscape where Haystack, Mamm and Baldy peaks rose above the Piceance Basin south of Interstate 70 where gas drilling is booming.

It’s a vast corridor for deer, elk, pine marten, lynx and other species, he said, and he fears a proliferation of gas wells in the area could threaten it.

“It’s a real big block of natural, very undisturbed landscape,” said Prendergast, of Crawford, a former Forest Service wilderness ranger who has joined with a coalition of environmental groups in opposing drilling here, one of several roadless areas slated to be auctioned on Thursday for gas drilling.

Groups of environmentalists, local outfitters and representatives of the outdoor recreation industry have protested leases on 20,000 roadless acres in the White River and adjacent national forests. They argue that roadless areas should stay that way, and that by putting these parcels up for auction, the Forest Service and Bureau of Land Management are shortchanging the work of the state roadless task force charged with deciding what protections should be put in place.

Last Thursday, that bipartisan task force came to broad agreement that these places should be protected from energy development, but that’s unlikely to affect this week’s auction.

“I think it’s a shame,” Steve Smith, of Glenwood Springs, a task force member representing The Wilderness Society told me for a story I wrote for the Aspen Daily News. “I think all activities that could alter or harm roadless areas really should be avoided while this process is continuing, just to be sure the places we’re trying to sort out don’t keep changing.”

The group is scheduled to make its final recommendations to Gov. Bill Owens later this month. Owens will make his own recommendations and forward them to the Department of Agriculture, which has the final say after the Bush administration rescinded Clinton-era protections for roadless areas across the country.

The task force agreed to allow roads for fire protection, forest health and in existing oil and gas leases, but it said new roads for future lease areas should be barred. That isn’t likely to take those roadless parcels off the table before next Thursday’s auction, but officials may rule on the protests even months later.

Melody Holm, program manager for leasable minerals with the Forest Service in Lakewood, said she has seen neither the task force’s recommendations nor the protest, and couldn’t say if it the group’s decision would affect any rulings on the protest.

“We’re operating under the existing forest plans,” she said, and those plans allow drilling in roadless areas.

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