December oil and gas lease sale includes the Roan Plateau

A December oil and gas lease sale proposed by the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) includes parcels on Colorado’s Roan Plateau, which rises about 3,000 feet above the Colorado River near Rifle. BLM floated its proposal last month to sell leases covering more than 126,000 acres for drilling, and on June 9 began a 30-day scoping period for 114 parcels scheduled to go to auction in December. Advocates, reporters, hunters and anglers joined a tour with EcoFlight to assess proposed areas, where they reported seeing roads and extraction impacts that already disrupted what would otherwise be largely intact habitat. The article notes the presence of a pristine, genetically unique cutthroat trout stream and highlights species and plants such as elk herds, mule deer, greater sage-grouse and Parachute penstemon. It also points to potential limits on public participation due to U.S. Department of the Interior policy changes, including reducing the scoping window from 90 days to 10 days, described as intended to “significantly expedite” the process.