Clear Fork Divide. Photo by JT Thomas Photography/Lighthawk.
Clear Fork Divide, Colorado
At Stake
A wild country made up of seven roadless areas with rolling aspen-covered mountains and old growth spruce forests standing guard over four major watersheds
Threat
An abundance of oil and gas wells littering the private and BLM lands at lower elevations have drilling companies setting their sights on Clear Fork, where leases have recently been sold
Solution
Short term: Keep the area free of new roads
Long term: Designation as part of the National Wilderness Preservation
What’s at Stake?
The wild peaks and deep forests of western Colorado—areas like the Clear Fork Divide region–helped inspire the country’s first Wilderness movement in the 1910s and continue to impress thousands of Americans each year with their spectacular vistas and pristine condition. Much of the Clear Fork Divide’s 101,000 roadless acres is undeveloped wild country that encompasses portions of the White River and Grand Mesa-Uncompahgre-Gunnison (GMUG) National Forests. This land includes seven roadless areas and is situated next to three renowned, designated Wilderness areas: the Raggeds, West Elk, and Maroon Bells-Snowmass Wilderness areas.
The Clear Fork Divide is a complex of roadless areas that bridges the important fish and wildlife habitats of the Clear Creek, Divide Creek, Plateau Creek, and Thompson Creek watersheds. The area provides a critical migratory corridor that connects the uplands of the greater Grand Mesa and Battlement Mesa region to the main stem of the Rocky Mountains. This corridor converges in a bottleneck that funnels wildlife across the headwaters of Clear Creek to Huntsman’s Ridge, and then connects to the main body of the Colorado Rockies across McClure Pass. Altogether, these roadless areas comprise 101,000 acres of ecologically significant public land.
The Clear Fork Divide landscapes are the epitome of the American West. Rolling mountains blanketed with vast, majestic aspen and old growth spruce forests stand guard over four major watersheds. The towering peaks along Battlement Creek lead down to 1,000-foot cliffs that overlook forests of juniper and pinyon pine. These remote forests are a haven for elk, mountain lion, bighorn sheep, Canada lynx and cutthroat trout. The best black bear core habitat area in the state is also found here. National Forest roadless areas in the Clear Fork Divide provide vital habitat and migration routes for numerous wildlife species and are particularly important for those that require large home ranges. These roadless lands – where wildfires still have a role in shaping the natural ecology – provide buffers against the spread of invasive weeds and loss of habitat, absorb climate-affecting carbon dioxide, and guard safe and reliable water supplies.
Each year, thousands of Americans view the wild forests of the Clear Fork Divide region on the way to mountain ski resorts and while touring the rich agricultural country along the Crystal and North Fork of the Gunnison rivers. The Clear Fork Divide’s successful balance between recreation, agriculture, and conservation has given it a special place in the hearts of Coloradoans.
In Colorado’s Garfield, Eagle, Pitkin, and Summit counties, 67 percent of the population is dependent on the tourism industry, much of that based directly on the roadless lands and scenery of the White River National Forest. Hunting, fishing, and wildlife viewing alone contribute $265 million to local economies every year, and 98 percent of that activity occurs in the National Forest. The roadless lands in Delta, Gunnison Montrose, and Mesa counties to the south and west provide similar benefits.
Protection Status
Although the Clear Fork Divide has thus far largely escaped the drilling boom hitting lower-elevation private and Bureau of Land Management (BLM) lands, much of the region is already leased and the drill rigs are creeping upward into the National Forest. Recently, the federal government leased parcels in Clear Fork Divide roadless areas, slowly pinching the last of this critical wildlife corridor. Three hundred square miles of the White River and GMUG National Forests have already been leased to oil and gas companies, and proposals for more leasing continue to come in.
The recently revised management plan for the White River National Forest and the pending revision of the GMUG National Forest Plan provide limited and potentially ephemeral protections for portions of the Clear Fork Divide. However, out-of-date environmental impact statements and decision documents on oil and gas policy for both forests did not anticipate the intense level of energy development now occurring there. The documents need to be updated and stronger protections for roadless lands put in place.
Why is the Clear Fork Divide at Risk?
With an abundance of oil and gas wells littering the private and BLM lands at lower elevations surrounding the Clear Fork Divide, it was only a matter of time before drilling companies set their sights on the wild roadless lands of the Clear Fork Divide. The Bush administration aided the drilling companies when it attempted to repeal the 2001 National Forest Roadless Area Conservation Rule, which protected inventoried roadless areas in national forests from road building to access new oil and gas leases, and tried to replace it with a process in which governors had to file petitions to protect roadless lands. However, while federal roadless policy continues to fluctuate, public support for roadless protection continues to be strong. Colorado citizens commenting on the 2001 Roadless Rule, on subsequent proposals for new roadless regulations, and as part of a state-sponsored Governor’s Roadless Review Task Force petition process, have, in very large majorities and with knowledge of the lands involved, called for the certain, complete, and enduring protection of roadless areas.
Although the Bush administration claims it wants decisions about local oil and gas drilling to be made by the locals themselves, lands are being auctioned off before local decisions are completed and the legal uncertainties over the Roadless Rule, and the Governor’s process that was to replace it, have been resolved. The August 2006 lease sale, for example, sold off leases for nearly 20,000 acres of inventoried roadless areas to drilling companies. Nearly 9,500 of these acres were part of five roadless areas (the Battlement Mesa, Clear Fork, Huntsman Ridge, Long Canyon and Tomahawk roadless areas) in the GMUG National Forest, and 4,400 acres in the White River National Forest, including land on the spectacular Battlement Mesa in the Mamm Peak Roadless Area.
Current Oil and Gas Development
In Garfield County alone (which includes the northern portion of the Clear Fork Divide), 3,750 active gas wells are already in place and another 1,000 new wells are approved each year. A total of 15,000 wells are projected over the next 10 years. There are thousands of active wells in western Colorado, and demand for new drilling permits is growing. Colorado has broken its own record for issuing drilling permits in each of the past three years, with nearly 4,000 permits issued in 2005. The construction of so many new wells exacts a large toll on the environment, as the land is subjected to new road construction, silt and waste runoff into streams, and habitat fragmentation from the resultant spider web of drill pads, pipelines and other infrastructure.
In Garfield County alone (which includes the northern portion of the Clear Fork Divide), 3,750 active gas wells are already in place and another 1,000 new wells are approved each year. A total of 15,000 wells are projected over the next 10 years. The region is providing a significant contribution to national energy supplies and can continue to do so without invading Colorado’s last roadless wild lands, which are so important to local economies and quality of life.
Solution
Many of the Clear Fork Divide roadless areas should ultimately be designated by Congress as part of the National Wilderness Preservation System. Meanwhile, the watersheds, wild forests, wildlife habitat, and rich beauty of these places should be protected and kept free of new roads. Revised forest plans for the White River and GMUG National Forests should be strengthened to provide protective management prescriptions for these key forested wildlands and the wildlife migratory linkages they provide.
In addition, federal forest and energy managers should adjust their decision-making about oil and gas leasing and about other potentially damaging intrusions to maintain the wild and roadless nature of these places. As part of that protection, the U.S. Forest Service and the BLM should abide by the protections provided by the 2001 Roadless Rule while awaiting the courts’ final rulings on whether the 2001 Roadless Rule or the Bush Administration’s state petition process should guide the management of national forest roadless areas. Under the 2001 Rule, any new oil and gas leases in roadless areas must carry explicit and permanent stipulations barring new road building
Concerned citizens should also write to Senators Wayne Allard and Ken Salazar, Congressman John Salazar, and the governor of Colorado to urge them to protect the wild lands of the Clear Fork Divide.
For More Information
Sloan Shoemaker, Wilderness Workshop: 970/963-3977
Steve Smith, The Wilderness Society: 303/650-5818, ext. 106
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Other Areas
- Too Wild to Drill (main page)
- Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, Alaska
- Beartooth Front, Wyoming
- Bridger-Teton National Forest’s Wyoming Range, Wyoming
- Carrizo Plain National Monument, California
- Clear Fork Divide, Colorado
- Grand Mesa Slopes, Colorado
- HD Mountains Roadless Area, Colorado
- Little Missouri National Grassland, North Dakota
- Otero Mesa, New Mexico
- Red Desert, Wyoming
- Roan Plateau, Colorado
- Rocky Mountain Front, Montana
- Teshekpuk Lake, Alaska
- Upper Green River Valley, Wyoming
- Utah's Redrock Wilderness
- Valle Vidal, New Mexico
- Vermillion Basin, Colorado
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