New Management Plan for Western Colorado Notches Conservation Wins
As a result of our decades-long advocacy, the BLM's recently released final management plan is a big improvement over the original 2015 plan. One major gain in the new plan is the amount of land closed to new leasing: red shading represents areas closed to new oil and gas leasing for the two field offices.
This article first appeared in the Winter 2024 edition of Wild Works.
Every 15-20 years, the BLM undertakes planning processes, resulting in Resource Management Plans (RMP) that determine how large tracts of land will be managed for decades to come.
In 2015, the BLM finalized the Colorado River Valley and Grand Junction RMPs, after nearly a decade of work. These two planning areas cover nearly 1.5 million acres of public land in western Colorado (see map right). The region is home to some of the state’s most vital wildlife habitats, cherished recreation areas, critical water resources and significant Indigenous cultural sites.
However, the 2015 plans were inadequate on a number of fronts. The BLM failed to analyze the climate impacts of its decisions or to consider alternatives limiting new oil and gas leasing to protect wildlife habitat, recreation and wilderness. Along with partners, we filed two lawsuits challenging the agency’s RMPs. We won the first lawsuit and, seeing the writing on the wall, BLM settled the second.
As a result, the BLM was required to prepare a Supplemental Environmental Impact Statement (SEIS) for both RMPs. The SEIS amounted to a revision that required the BLM to more thoroughly assess the climate impacts of new oil and gas development and to consider closing additional public lands to new oil and gas leasing. During the comment period for the draft SEIS, WW and our partners generated responses from nearly 6,000 community members and 85 businesses and over 25 elected officials on the Western Slope signed letters supporting the proposed leasing closures and increased conservation management.
In 2024, the BLM finalized the SEIS and announced a new plan. The plan provides meaningful protection for some of our most sensitive public lands, including new Areas of Critical Environmental Concern (ACEC) and BLM’s first new Wilderness Study Area (WSA) in two decades. As a result of our advocacy and engagement, some of the most substantial conservation gains in the new plan include:
- More than one million acres of public lands and minerals closed to new oil and gas leasing!
- Expanded protections for Areas of Critical Environmental Concern, including expanding the Grand Hogback ACEC near New Castle and closing it to oil and gas leasing.
- The recognition of an additional 52,000 acres of wilderness-quality lands.
- A 7,000 acre expansion of the Castle Peak Wilderness Study Area in Eagle County.
Despite these improvements, the BLM unfortunately chose to leave open much of the ‘high-potential’ lands most likely to be leased for new oil and gas development, and, consequently, failed to secure meaningful reductions of harmful climate emissions. In the end, the new plan is a substantial improvement. Without years of hard work from us and a strong coalition of partners, we would have had to settle with the highly inadequate 2015 plans.
