Secretary Ryan Zinke’s relentless attacks on public lands protections to expand oil and gas drilling have reached Colorado. His crusade will impact environmentally-sensitive land next to one of our most breathtaking national parks.
Picture a sea of sand dunes nestled beneath snow capped mountains this boundless landscape is the Great Sand Dunes National Park and Preserve. The Trump Administration is auctioning off mineral rights on 18,000 acres merely miles away from the park.
Under a so-called “energy dominance mandate”, the Bureau of Land Management has put up 11 land parcels for auction in Huerfano County, no more than 8 miles east of Great Sand Dunes National Park and Preserve, with one parcel less than a mile away. All of the parcels for auction are also within spitting distance of the Sangre de Cristo Wilderness, with one parcel directly adjacent to a “roadless area” known for its unique wildness. This area has fragile ecosystems, important wildlife species, and a growing tourism based economy that drilling would put at significant risk.
Great Sand Dunes National Park has perfect conditions for a dark night sky and quiet solitude. Tourists from all around the world visit the park to stargaze at the endless expanse of stars and appreciate an escape from the hustle bustle of daily life.
Colorado Parks and Wildlife has identified that Sensitive Wildlife Habitat overlaps 10 of the 11 parcels up for sale. All of the parcels overlap very important habitat for elk and mule deer, including their winter concentration areas, severe winter range, as well as calving and fawning areas critical to the population’s health. One parcel overlaps a significant portion of land set aside as a conservation easement through the Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation.
Six of the parcels are within Wolf Springs Ranch, part of the Colorado Parks and Wildlife Ranching for Wildlife program that was partially purchased by the Navajo Nation to use for special ceremonies, food subsistence, and recreation. This includes areas where a mountain sacred to the Navajo people can be experienced. Wolf Springs Ranch has unobstructed views of Sisnaajini (Blanca Peak), one of the four sacred mountains of the Navajo people.
If these parcels are sold to the oil and gas industry, it will be a license for hazardous machinery to create a patchwork of destruction across our public lands and important ancestral lands to native tribes. It would disrupt the migration patterns of elk, deer and other iconic Colorado wildlife; thunderous drilling rigs will shake the earth above burrowing marmots and owls; unique dark sky views will be polluted, and the solitude found in this area will be disturbed; dangerous pollution will be sent into the air and water we all share.
The fight has just begun. The Bureau of Land Management (BLM) is required to open these oil and gas leases for public review and comment. The comment period opens on March 22 on the same day the BLM releases the Environmental Assessment for this area. Sierra Club is working with our partners to ensure public citizens voices are heard, but we only have 15 days to submit comments into the public record.
On behalf of the more than 100,000 members and supporters of Sierra Club Colorado Chapter, we are requesting a moratorium on the sale of these leases to oil and gas drilling until the BLM has adequately updated their planning process to include the health, environmental, spiritual, and cultural impacts of industrialized fracking.
This shorter, 15-day timeframe is designed to let this sale go unnoticed as this administration and their cronies exploit our public lands for the fossil fuel industry’s gain, but we’ll be there every step of the way to make sure corporate polluters don’t get their hands on lands next to Great Sand Dunes National Park.
Join us in the fight. The Colorado Our Wild America campaign will host a webinar on Tuesday, April 3rd at 6:30pm M.T. that will go through comment submission. RSVP HERE. Even if you miss the webinar, you can submit comments here.