How You Can Help

Jack Morrow Hills/Northern Red Desert

Friends of the Red Desert continues to campaign for a National Conservation Area (NCA) designation for the Jack Morrow Hills/Northern Red Desert. Our latest effort is to gain local government support to build momentum. We are targeting County Commissioners in Fremont and Sweetwater County.

We need your help!

If you live in or frequently visit Fremont and/or Sweetwater County, please contact your County Commissioners and ask them to support a NCA designation for the Jack Morrow Hills/Northern Red Desert. The Hills are located within both counties including Sublette. We are currently not focusing on Sublette.

Contact information for the County Commissioners is here, but if you need specific information for your comments, feel free to contact Joy Owen at 307.335.8633, Bruce Pendery at 435.752.2111, or Erik Molvar at 307.742.7978.

Friends of the Red Desert is asking folks to write a letter to the editor and/or a letter to U.S. Senator Craig Thomas. On July 20, 2006, the Record of Decision (ROD) for the Jack Morrow Hills (JMH) was released by the Rock Springs Bureau of Land Management. Despite 80,000 public citizens who asked for no new oil and gas development the ROD calls for a minimum of 255 wells to be drilled there. Because the BLM didn’t take the publics’ desires into seriously the next step to safeguard the JMH’s is for the area to be designated as a National Conservation Area. Please help by taking a few minutes out of your day to write a letter and to help save a Wyoming Legacy. At the bottom of this page is contact information for your assistance. Please cc FRD or mail us a copy of your letter(s) so we can be aware of our supporters’ actions. Thank you.

TALKING POINTS
The object of writing a Letter to the Editor is to start a dialogue within your community and Wyoming about the Red Desert and the importance of preserving portions of this landscape. Writing to our Elected Officials informs the Legislature what we want to see in our state. Because U.S. Senator Craig Thomas is on the Energy and Natural Resource Committee he is pinpointed to sponsor the National Conservation Area bill and thus aid in our goal. He has also supported the idea of protecting areas in the Red Desert.

In writing your letter(s) talk about personal experiences and what you enjoy doing in the Red Desert, there by explaining why this area is important to you.

  1. Express concern about the future of southwest Wyoming and the impacts of oil and gas development.
  2. Recognize the importance of a well-planned development to a sustainable economy.
  3. Discuss your concern that the BLM is not managing for multiple use but rather for a single use: oil and gas development. Relate the importance of Red Desert for animal migration and hunting. Over 350 wildlife species make their home here, including one of the largest desert elk herds in North America, large numbers of ferruginous hawks and sage grouse, and the largest migratory game herd in the lower 48—the 50,000 strong Sublette antelope herd.
  4. Introduce the concept of a National Conservation Area and how this is an ideal tool to protect portions of the Red Desert.

Important Contextual Information
Released on July 20, 2006, the Jack Morrow Hills Record of Decision for the 622,000 acre area in the northwest Red Desert of Wyoming, called for initial development of 255 oil, gas and coalbed methane wells. This number is NOT a cap. It is an estimate. The BLM admits in the plan that it does not know the true scope of development since the energy reserve potential is controversial and largely unknown. As we have seen across Wyoming, if the mineral extraction industry “hits” many more wells will be drilled in addition to more roads and pipelines.

The public asked for no new oil and gas development in the Jack Morrow Hills (JMH) and despite more than 80,000 people who commented to protect this area the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) decided to ignore our requests and support the industry. These lands are public and the BLM didn’t adequately respond to the public’s desires. We want long term protection for the JMH and a solution is for the area to be designated as a National Conservation Area.

In the Record of Decision (ROD):

    Good News
  1. A little more than half (316,570 acres) will be closed/unavailable to oil and gas leasing.
  2. Steamboat Mountain Area of Critical Environmental Concern (ACEC) is expanded by 3,980 acres to encompass parts of the Indian Gap National Historical Trail and lemon-scurfpea habitat association. Other ACEC’s stay the same.
  3. The Wilderness Study Areas remain the same and are closed to development.
  4. South Pass ACEC gets conditional no surface disturbance or disruptive activities for visible portions only. This could cut major gold mining efforts at Dickie Springs.
    Bad News
  1. Parts of the Indian Gap Trail will remain open to surface disturbance pursuant to “mitigation to protect resource values”.
  2. Big game crucial habitats will remain open to strip mining for the most part.
  3. Most of the Big Empty, and the Honeycomb Buttes expansions, plus parts of the Oregon Buttes Badlands Citizens’ Proposed Wilderness areas will be open to oil and gas leasing and development with essentially no protections.
  4. There are seasonal stipulations for big game winter range and birthing areas, which are known to fail for elk, sage grouse, and mule deer.
  5. Seasonal stipulations only for areas within ½ to 1 mile of raptor nests - and exceptions will be available.
  6. Areas withdrawn from surface mining can be put back into production for oil shale.
  7. Thumper trucks could drive along or across the Oregon Trail, as long as BLM determines there would be no adverse effect

The ROD isn’t enough protection for wildlife. Also, the area isn’t permanently protected, which means it can be changed in a blink of an eye.

Addresses for additional newspapers can be found at http://www.wyopress.org/members.htm.

Where to send your letter(s)
Contact information for newspapers and elected officials can be found here.

Please make sure to include your name, phone number, signature (if possible), and address. Thank you so much for doing your part to provide a voice for Wyoming’s special places!

Adobe Town

The Rawlins Bureau of Land Management (BLM) will release the Final Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) for the Great Divide Resource Management Plan this summer 2007. Once the Final EIS has been published the public will have 30 days to provide comments on the plan. Writing comments is a way to inform the BLM what uses and areas are important to you.

We will inform you when the Final EIS is published. Comments can be written to Dave Simons, Rawlins Field Office, BLM, 1300 N. 3rd St., Rawlins, WY 82301 or via email at DesFlats_WYMail@blm.gov.

If you would like detailed information regarding Adobe Town you can view Campaign Details or in Resources go to Reports and click on the Adobe Town Briefing Report.