 |
 ome to the country's first national park, national forest and national monument, Wyoming has a grand legacy of conservation. But that heritage proved of little worth to the Bush Administration, which targeted the state with its "drill everywhere" policy. Ground zero: Wyoming's Red Desert, where despite local efforts to preserve the area's magnificent wildlands, the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) decided last year to open nearly all of them, some 3 million acres, to oil and gas development.
Determined to keep more than 2,000 coal-bed methane wells out of the Red Desert, along with 1,000 miles of new roads and dangerous levels of air pollution that would extend all the way to Rocky Mountain National Park, NRDC filed suit last year to stop the energy invasion. The Obama Administration has agreed to the demands of NRDC and other groups to halt some of the most harmful drilling leases. However, the sale of others continues at a rapid pace, threatening tens of thousands of acres of habitat critical to the survival of the embattled sage grouse, whose population has plummeted in recent decades, and thousands more in areas of outstanding beauty where citizens have long been advocating for permanent protection. And it's no wonder: This wild, undulating landscape with its wind-worn crests, desolate sagebrush plains and juniper woodlands is a special place, home to any number of the West's cherished wildlife species, including elk, mule deer and pronghorn.
"Local citizens who want to pass this unspoiled wilderness on to their grandchildren -- and even the state government -- have expressed outrage over the BLM's reckless rush to development," said Sharon Buccino, director of NRDC's land program. "We'll keep fighting in court and inside the Interior Department to protect this remarkable piece of our natural heritage."
|
|
|
|
|
|
“Local citizens who want to pass this unspoiled wilderness on to their grandchildren -- and even the state government -- have expressed outrage over the BLM's reckless rush to development.”
|
|
|
|
