Bush Allows Drilling Leases Near Dinosaur Monument

WASHINGTON, DC, February 12, 2004 (ENS) - During the next week the U.S. Bureau of Land Management (BLM) plans to auction 56 oil and gas leases on federal lands surrounding Dinosaur National Monument in Colorado. Some of the sites are within a mile of the monument and the decision has outraged environmentalists, former Park Service officials, and many local citizens.

"It is incumbent on the public to stand and say this is inappropriate," said Denny Huffman, a 34 year Park Service veteran who served as superintendent of Dinosaur National Monument from 1987 through 1997.

The 215,000 acre monument preserves one of the world's historic dinosaur fossil quarries, as well as surrounding wild canyons and rivers.

The Colorado BLM is scheduled today to auction 27 land parcels, totaling some 44,000 acres, on the south side of the monument.

These parcels surround the park's headquarters, visitor center, and a scenic access road to the heart of the monument.

On February 18, the Utah BLM will sell 28 additional parcels flanking the western end of the monument, including 14 parcels located in areas the BLM previously proposed for wilderness protection.

Environmental groups have already filed a legal challenge against the Utah leases and plan to challenge the Colorado leases.

The public lands in and around Dinosaur National Monument are some of the wildest left in the lower 48 states. (Photo courtesy Park Service)

The BLM office could not be reached by deadline, yet officials have acknowledged that many of the lease parcels do not have proven reserves and development will be visible from trails, roads and scenic vistas within the monument.

But officials say the impact on visitor's enjoyment will be minimal and that any oil and gas exploration or development will have to meet environmental protection standards.

Huffman compared the plan to inviting the public to the Lincoln Memorial or Yellowstone National Park but "requiring them to enter through the abandoned industrial complexes of Pittsburgh."

At the same time, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency announced Wednesday that it has selected the Dinosaur National Monument for membership in the National Environmental Performance Track Program. This program rewards facilities that voluntarily exceed regulatory requirements, implement environmental management systems, work closely with their communities, and set three year goals to continuously improve environmental performance.

Paleontologist Earl Douglass first discovered dinosaur fossils at the site in 1909, and six years later President Woodrow Wilson protected the quarry site as a national monument.

The monument now covers 215,000 acres and is promoted by the National Park Service as a place with "plenty of room for you to find solitude, magnificent scenery, hike a wild landscape, and renew your relationship with nature."

"It is a special place that deserves a more critical and balanced look at what we do around it," Huffman said. "Call it zoning if you like, but we do that every day in so many places where special values are at stake. This is one of those places of special value to the American people."

The lease sales are indicative of the Bush administration's determination to open Western public lands to oil and gas development despite local opposition, according to Pete Kolbenschlag of the Colorado Environmental Coalition.

"People in the West really care about their landscapes, but we are no longer confident that our public agencies care that we care," Kolbenschlag said.

There is less and less public review of BLM decisions, Kolbenschlag said, and the Colorado lease sales are being expedited under a process that limits environmental review.

"This is absurd as BLM knows this is a highly contentious issue," he said. "But there is a rush to drill everything and anything and to target wild lands and lock them up in leases."

Bloch added that the sale of the Utah parcels previously earmarked for wilderness consideration is the "direct result" of a controversial legal settlement brokered in April 2003 by Interior Secretary Gale Norton and then Utah Governor Michael Leavitt - who is now head of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.

Utah Governor Mike Leavitt's settlement with Interior Department Secretary Gale Norton dramatically altered how BLM protects wilderness quality lands. (Photo courtesy Governor Leavitt's office)

The effect was the repeal of interim protection for 2.6 million acres of BLM land in Utah, including 14 land parcels up for lease next week. In November the Utah BLM sold 16 oil and gas leases in areas previously proposed for wilderness protection - that sale has been challenged in federal court.

Environmentalists have been among the Bush administration's harshest and most vocal critics, but the lease sales in Dinosaur National Monument are drawing other voices into the fray.

Some 300,000 people visit the park and surrounding communities each year and they do not come to see oil and gas development, says Tom Kleinschnitz, president of the Utah Guides and Outfitters Association.

"Local businesses that rely on tourists, who come to see the amazing scenic landscapes in and around Dinosaur National Monument, will be adversely impacted by oil and gas development," he said. "Without adequate public notice and participation, the Bush administration is exploiting our wild lands for a few days of oil."