The Bureau of Land Management (BLM) has officially announced their intention to put all 55,000 acres of the public lands atop of the Roan Plateau on the auction block at their August 14th lease sale.  Now, citizens from across Colorado and the United States have a critical opportunity to put a halt to this irresponsible drilling plan. 

We have until July 30th 2008 to submit a formal protest of this decision, asking that the BLM pull the Roan Plateau parcels from their upcoming lease sale. As citizens of the United States, we have a stake in the economic and environmental impacts of drilling the Roan Plateau and a desire to maintain the Roan's wildlife habitat, rugged landscape and recreational opportunities.

The Citizen Protest argues, among other things, that the BLM failed to:   

• Abide by the recommendations of its own field staff, local municipalities and the State of Colorado.
  
  
• Consider alternatives that would protect the Roan's wilderness-quality lands.
  
  
• Consider alternatives that would protect high-quality backcountry recreation.
  
  
• Properly consider impacts of drilling on the region's declining air quality.
  
  
• Properly consider the impacts of drilling on wildlife and senstive species. 

The protest respectfully requests that the BLM rescind the decision to lease these lands under the current plan, and that it pulls all the parcels listed above from the August 2008 oil and gas lease sale. 

(Read the full text of the letter here.)

Please sign on to the protest! 

Sample Letter for Campaign

Dear [ Decision Maker ] ,

The Roan Plateau is a visually stunning, undeveloped island of public land surrounded by intense gas drilling activity. Preserving Roan Plateau's traditional values is vital to local economies and quality-of-life. The Roan Plateau is one of the most biologically diverse places in Western Colorado -- only 3 other places hold such a richness of species and all of these three are protected within the National Park Service.

When BLM initiated the planning process, it pledged in its 2000 Notice of Intent that it would craft a "community-supported" plan. It has failed to do so. Instead the BLM has gone against the recommendations of its field staff, the public, and numerous cooperating agencies. BLM has failed to consider alternatives that would protect the Roan's wilderness quality lands and important backcountry recreation opportunities. It has failed to properly account for impacts from the commitment of all the Roan?s public lands to be leased in this sale, and has failed to fully consider impacts to air quality, sensitive species, and wildlife. Furthermore, BLM has willfully misinterpreted the Transfer Act that neither anticipated nor directed BLM to immediately lease all the area?s public lands for oil and gas development.

Therefore, we the undersigned citizens of the United States, respectfully request that the BLM rescind the decision to lease these lands under the current plan, and that it pulls all the parcels listed above from the August 2008 oil and gas lease sale. We have included below, as per the guidelines published in the notice of this sale, our names and mailing addresses. Thank you for your due consideration of our concerns and this citizen protest, lawfully filed on July 30, 2008.

Signed by:

Campaign Launched:
July 07, 2008