The Roan Plateau in western Colorado is a place of deep box canyons, quiet trout streams and expansive meadows that rises 3,500 feet above the Colorado River valley. Home to black bears, cougars, prized elk and deer herds, golden eagles and peregrine falcons, the plateau is also richly valued for its recreational opportunities, hunting and fishing places and wildlife habitat. Aspen and spruce forests, tall waterfalls and cliffs all lie hidden on top.
For these reasons, the Bureau of Land Management, the federal agency that manages this national treasure, as well as citizen groups have identified important wild lands on the Roan Plateau as eligible for wilderness designation.
Although about half of the Roan Plateau is already either owned or leased by the oil and gas industry, the top and cliffs of the plateau remain an oasis of natural beauty. But before it left office, the Bush administration leased 55,000 acres of this public land for natural gas development. Drilling, along with roads, pipelines and other associated development activities, would forever alter the Roan Plateau landscape and foreclose the possibility of wilderness designation.
NRDC is making it easy for you to send a message urging Interior Secretary Salazar to cancel the gas drilling leases on the Roan Plateau. Just visit our Action Center to see how. If you would like additional information, check out these recent articles in The New York Times and Men's Journal magazine.