Visitors to Colorado's wild canyon country can gaze across panoramic vistas of glowing redrock, discover hidden canyons, and walk for miles across windswept plateaus of ancient piñons and gnarled junipers. It is in this country, where native civilizations etched into rock the sacred symbols of their cultures, that coyotes howl, eagles soar and elk calve. Vermillion Basin, in Colorado’s northwest corner, embodies this wild and rugged landscape, with its vividly colored badlands, rich archaeological history, and rare plant communities.

Lookout Mountain and the adjacent Vermillion Bluffs rise up in a dramatic 1,700-foot escarpment, gracing visitors with views that encompass much of northwest Colorado. Below, Vermillion Basin stretches out in a vast, undulating, rainbow-colored basin, transected by a stunning desert canyon that cuts through the sandstone layers, shaping and breaking the soft sediments.

Vermillion Canyon contains a fantastic collection of petroglyphs amid sculpted sandstone cliffs that rise up to 1,000 feet. At least eight panels, four of them with dozens of petroglyphs, line the canyon walls. One petroglyph rises over six feet high on a ledge 40 feet above the canyon floor. Other petroglyphs feature bow hunting, religious figures, coyotes, elk, deer, and footprints.

Mammals that inhabit the area include elk, antelope, mule deer, coyote, and white-tailed prairie dog. The area also provides habitat for numerous bird species, including golden eagle and peregrine falcon. The other biodiversity values of the area are also significant. The Colorado Natural Heritage Area program has identified sixteen Potential Conservation Areas for rare plants and plant communities within the Vermillion Basin.

“Vermillion Basin is a unique place that should be protected as wilderness,” says Reed Morris of the Colorado Environmental Coalition. “It would be incredibly short-sighted to open an area like this to oil and gas development and the associated pipelines, drill pads, and roads. We would forever lose the character of one of the state’s wildest places, as well as the mysteries of its canyons, petroglyphs, and rare plants and animals.

“Additionally, this area has exceptional supplemental values including rare and uncommon plants and plant communities, unique geological features, spectacular scenery and scenic vistas, and irreplaceable cultural resources.”
- The BLM's 2001 Inventory Report

Vermillion Basin has no formal protection, although the area is part of Colorado’s 1.6 million-acre Citizens' Wilderness Proposal that was introduced as legislation by Congresswoman Diana DeGette beginning in 1999 and in subsequent congresses. The legislation would permanently protect 1.3 million acres of Colorado wildlands managed by the BLM, as well as roughly 300,000 acres of adjacent Forest Service lands.

The BLM’s own 2001 field review of roadless and wilderness character vindicated citizens’ claims: The agency found that 77,067 acres out of Vermillion's 81,028 total acres (or 95% of the area) have wilderness characteristics. The BLM’s 2001 inventory report concluded: “This large inventory area includes expansive and colorful badlands, rugged, steep-walled canyons, and all or major portions of two designated Areas of Critical Environmental Concern. Additionally, this area has exceptional supplemental values including rare and uncommon plants and plant communities, unique geological features, spectacular scenery and scenic vistas, and irreplaceable cultural resources.”

The southern Wyoming gas boom is moving further south into Colorado, putting tremendous pressure on Vermillion Basin. Large seismic gas exploration projects have been proposed just to the east and north of the basin, and a 4,000-well gas field build-out has been proposed for Hiawatha, just north of the area. Travelers who drive along the Colorado/Wyoming border north of Vermillion will see numerous drill pads where development has already occurred. Vermillion Basin, too, is a target of the industry, and in 2001, the BLM actually offered two oil and gas lease sales directly on the border of Vermillion Basin on the top of Lookout Mountain, one of the most prominent landmarks in the wilderness viewshed.

The high level of interest by the oil and gas industry makes it quite clear that without an effective Resource Management Plan, the remote and rugged Vermillion Basin would soon be covered with a network of roads, drill pads, waste ponds, and pipelines, and its wilderness character lost forever.

The Vermillion Basin is part of the Little Snake Resource Area, which is in the midst of a plan revision that will decide how the area is managed for the next two decades; the plan will also determine the future of six other citizen-proposed wilderness areas and some of Colorado’s best habitat for the imperiled sage grouse and largest elk herd. Although the BLM has determined that a portion of Vermillion Basin has high potential for oil and gas, the BLM’s Little Snake Field Office (Craig, CO) has committed to not leasing the area until the updated management plan is released and decides the management fate of the basin. The draft plan is expected in January 2007.

In January 2003, the Moffat County Board of Commissioners approved a resolution to assert highway right-of-way claims under provisions of an 1866 mining law known as R.S. (Revised Statute) 2477. The County has claimed more than 2,000 miles of routes, including over 230 miles of claimed “roads” within the 77,000 roadless wilderness-quality acres of Vermillion Basin. Many of these claimed roads are cowpaths, faint tracks, or non-existent, but during the ongoing planning process, Moffat County is pressuring BLM to consider these claims, which could eventually lead to proposals to further open the area’s pristine wilderness, ecological and cultural values to off-highway vehicle traffic.

Except for its northeast corner, Vermillion Basin, as well as the adjacent proposed Cold Spring Mountain Wilderness, is otherwise unleased and, for the time being, represents an oasis of wildness in a landscape otherwise slated for oil and gas development.

As part of the Little Snake plan revision, BLM is currently considering whether to incorporate a proposal from Moffat County and the State of Colorado to allow energy development to disturb one percent of the Vermillion Basin area. However, even this amount of development, which could mean as many as 125 well pads and associated roads in the northern and most delicate portion of the basin, would forever destroy the Basin’s wild character.  

To help inform the public planning process, The Wilderness Society’s Center for Landscape Analysis completed a habitat fragmentation analysis of Moffat County’s Vermillion Basin drilling proposal to illustrate its shortcomings in adequately protecting sage grouse nesting habitat. The Wilderness Society is also conducting a comprehensive analysis of the different management alternatives in the BLM’s draft plan to contrast their impacts on proposed wilderness, key habitat and other public values to help guide the thinking of BLM, local citizens, interest groups and local governments actively participating in the planning process.

The release of the Colorado BLM’s Resource Management Plan for the Little Snake Resource Area will determine the fate of the Vermillion Basin, including whether the area’s wilderness character will be protected or developed for oil and gas. Concerned citizens can follow or learn how to participate in the process by visiting the web page for The Wilderness Society’s BLM Action Center.

During this planning process, the Colorado Wilderness Network has formally nominated protecting the Vermillion Basin by having it designated as an Outstanding Natural Area (a type of ACEC). This designation was established by the BLM primarily to protect unique scenic, scientific, educational, and recreational values for the enjoyment of current and future generations.

Ultimately, however, the solution to preserving wilderness-quality lands like Vermillion Basin is legislative passage of Colorado’s Citizens' Wilderness Proposal, which would protect over 1.6 million acres of Colorado's canyon country. With the vast majority of BLM lands in Colorado and nationally already open to oil and gas development, such protection would be especially appropriate for this wild, spectacular corner of Colorado’s canyon country.

Suzanne Jones, The Wilderness Society, 303/650-5818 ext 102
Reed Morris, Colorado Environmental Coalition, 970/824-5241