In December, Governor Ritter released his recommendations for the Roan Plateau Management Plan.  He concurred with the BLM's recommendation to allow natural gas development within the Roan Planning Area including above the Plateau's rim - in contrast to conservation interests who had advocated for protection of those public lands.  In other key elements, however, his proposal differed from BLMs:  

• The BLM had significantly reduced the size of the "Areas of Critical Environmental Concern" or ACECs that were recommended and which would have "no surface occupancy" stipulations.  Governor Ritter recommended expanding those ACECs back to what BLM and the Colorado Division of Wildlife had earlier identified in the process.
• While BLM called for immediate leasing of the entire Roan, but phased development of those leases, Governor Ritter recommended phasing the leasing process, with new areas being leased only after development (and some as-yet-undefined level of reclamation) had been completed on the previous phase.  The difference is notable, because the act of issuing a lease gives a property interest once it is issued.  Delaying leasing leaves the door open to re-examine issues and potential constraints that should be placed on leases for later phases of development.

While it represents improvement from BLM's plan, the Governor's proposal still has points of significant concern for conservationists:

• His plan still contemplates development on the sensitive top portion of the Roan Plateau; conservationists have called for protection of those lands and development of the underlying natural gas through directional drilling from adjacent lands.
• His plan - like BLM's - would allow waivers of the protective "no surface occupancy" stipulations in ACECs (though the specifics of when and how are not defined).
• His plan would allow development even within ACECs in corridors along the existing rim roads, bringing greater lands disturbance into the tops of those important watersheds.
• His proposed ACEC boundaries, while larger than BLM's, still fail to protect the complete native cutthroat trout watersheds - most notably, the headwaters of Northwater Creek.

The Governor's office produced a PDF file with maps showing major aspects of his proposal (read here).  In contrast, TU has proposed an expanded ACEC boundary that would fully protect cutthroat watersheds, with true, non-waivable no surface occupancy protections.  TU's mapped ACECs atop the Roan include the purple shaded areas - nearly 8,300 acres of the cutthroat trout watersheds that fall outside of the Governor's recommended ACECs.

Return to CTU's Roan Plateau Page.