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Thompson Divide Mineral Withdrawal - Info Session 12.14.2022
The Thompson Divide is a spectacular landscape of a quarter of a million acres of public land in western Colorado. It stretches west from Carbondale and south from Glenwood Springs (the Roaring Fork Valley) into the North Fork Valley east of Paonia, and continues south over Kebler Pass and toward Crested Butte. Beginning in the early 2000s, during the “lease before you look” frenzy of the Bush administration, oil and gas leases were issued throughout the Thompson Divide and nearby roadless areas. By 2009, oil and gas companies held about 70 leases within the Thompson Divide area and dozens more in neighboring roadless areas.
This year on October 12, the same day he designated the 53,000-acre Camp Hale-Continental Divide National Monument, President Biden announced the BLM and US Forest Service would be moving forward with a request to administratively withdraw 225,000 acres of the Thompson Divide from future oil and gas leasing, as well as mining, under the Federal Lands Policy and Management Act (FLMPA).
On Wednesday, December 14th (tomorrow!) the US Forest Service and Bureau of Land Management will be hosting a joint information session at the Carbondale Fire Department (300 Meadowood Drive, Carbondale, CO). This is an important opportunity to learn about the process for a withdrawal and to ask the federal agencies to make the withdrawal a priority and to move quickly. The meeting will be held in-person but will also have a virtual option. The agencies will be giving an overview of the proposal, explain what a withdrawal is, how to comment, and next steps. There will be a Q&A session and opportunities for 1-1 discussion with agency staff. We want to show community support at every point and anticipate more meetings and comment periods in the future. Let's start with a strong showing at this meeting!
Register for the event here: https://www.fs.usda.gov/detail/whiteriver/news-events/?cid=FSEPRD1076803
Sign Wilderness Workshop’s action alert here: https://wilderness-workshop.salsalabs.org/ww-tdawjanuary2023blmadvocacyaction/index.html
Mike’s Hikes Retrospective
In 2018 Mike Burkley led the inaugural “Mike’s Hike” for WSCC in the Adobe Badlands Wilderness Study Area near Delta. The program didn’t even have a name at the time, it just had an enthusiastic hiker who was motivated to get others out to enjoy the fabulous public lands in our area. Since that day, Mike and numerous other volunteer trip leaders have offered 35 outings of all shapes and sizes. All in all, we estimate we’ve had about 360 participants (not 360 unique individuals; a few locals are frequent flyers at these events) and collectively hiked over 2200 miles!
Our hats off to Mike for getting this program started at WSCC, and to all the volunteer leaders who helped out over the years. We are always looking for more trip leaders and new ideas for hikes. If you think you might want to lead a trip some day and/or have an idea for an interesting trail or topic, we’d like to hear from you. Contact ben@theconservationcenter.org
See the photo collage of 2022 Mike's Hikes at the end of this newsletter!
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