I recently talked with a Red Desert rat friend who will forget more about the desert than I will probably ever know.
"Mac, why can't they just leave the darned place alone? Why can't they just let the desert be?" he asked me.
I didn't have an answer for him. It seems logical to me: places like the Red Desert should just be left alone without roads, rigs and utility lines tearing out their souls. But with an Interior Department hell bent for leather on boosting domestic oil and gas production at any cost, such logic doesn't seem to apply.
The Bureau of Land Management (BLM) has spent more time and energy drafting the Jack Morrow Hills Coordinated Activity Plan than Tolstoy probably spent writing War and Peace. However, to use an oft-used cliche, "the proof will be in the pudding." Since the plan is due out sometime shortly after the holiday season, it may be a Christmas pudding, nice to look at but virtually inedible, with an oily aftertaste. Heartburn on the horizon? Definitely. Stock up on your Pepto-Bismol.
Awaiting the News
By the time this article is published, we may know the exact contents of the plan. To date, the BLM has been more than surreptitious about the plan's contents and the timing of its release.
We do expect a conservation alternative, as directed by former Interior Secretary Bruce Babbitt. However, we also anticipate an alternative that will increase drilling in the 88,000-acre core area around Steamboat Mountain and the Sands Ð home to the elusive and thriving Steamboat Mountain elk herd.
What's Next
Once the BLM releases its plan, which it says it will do in early 2003, citizens and conservation groups must, yet again, engage in the Jack Morrow Hills planning process.
During the 90-day public comment period that will follow the plan's release, we must all get involved if we want to protect the core of the Red Desert. Look for information from us in your mailbox, email box and on our website about the plan, public meetings and other comment opportunities. Please submit comments, and encourage others to do so as well!
Fortunately, state, regional and national environmental groups and concerned citizens are better informed and more eager to act to protect the Red Desert than ever before. Simply put, the public will not tolerate another energy sacrifice zone in the Jack Morrow Hills Area of the Red Desert.
With enough letters, emails and effort, we can all help ensure that this little chunk of the eight-million-acre Greater Red Desert will continue to provide wildlife habitat, hiking and camping, hunting, motorized recreation, grazing and other uses beyond large-scale oil and gas development. Desert rats: the time to act is fast approaching! |
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