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The Bureau of Land Management is proposing new conservation designations on more than 100,000 acres of public land in Colorado, while preventing new oil and gas leases on more than 1.6 million acres. The proposed resource management plans (RMPs) come from the agency's Grand Junction and Colorado River Valley field offices, stretching across seven counties.
E&E News reports that the draft RMPs would avoid future oil and gas leasing on lands with "no-known, low, or medium" potential for oil production, along with lands that have high values for wildlife, conservation or wilderness. In practice, that would mean oil and gas leasing is still allowed on roughly 20 percent of the federal land in both field offices.
The RMPs would also establish nine areas of critical environmental concern (ACECs), a conservation designation that Congress ordered BLM to prioritize when it passed the Federal Land Policy and Management Act of 1976. One of the new ACECs would cover nearly 25,000 acres in the Colorado River Valley Field Office to protect the greater sage-grouse. Another ACEC in the Grand Junction Field Office identifies 27,200 acres to protect the Gunnison sage-grouse that is only found in Colorado and Utah.
The BLM will hold a 90-day public comment period on the proposed RMPs and a 60-day comment period on the proposed ACECs. The agency also plans to hold two public meetings on the plans, with details to follow in the coming weeks.
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There's a lot of trails that we had out there that were getting neglected, that we just could not get to because we did not have that manpower. Now, with the [Montana Conservation Corps] crews coming in, there are trails that have been opened up that probably have not been cut for the last 15 years.”
