IN THIS SECTION:
•Red Desert - Home
•Defining the Red Desert
•History
•Threats
•BBC film transcript
•Photo Maps
•Jack Morrow Hills
•Great Divide
•Western Heritage Facts
•Great Divide Facts
•Resources
"Having to squeeze the last drop of utility out of the land has the same desperate finality as having to chop up the furniture to keep warm." - Aldo Leopold
Programs - Red Desert - Home

Steeped in history and fable, Wyoming's mysterious Red Desert stretches through central and southern Wyoming into northern Colorado. Also called the "Great American Desert," this eight-million-acre area lies predominantly on lands administered by the Bureau of Land Management (BLM). The Red Desert harbors some of the most unique resources within the state, including the largest active sand dune system in North America, the Great Divide Basin (the only place in the United States where the Continental Divide splits before rejoining), one of the nation's largest desert elk herds, the largest migratory game herd in the lower 48 states (a 50,000-strong antelope herd), and over 350 wildlife species.


The area also encompasses numerous wild lands deserving of permanent wilderness protection such as Oregon Buttes, Honeycomb Buttes, Adobe Town and the Ferris Mountains, scores of Native American cultural sites such as Steamboat Mountain and the White Mountain Petroglyphs, and such historically significant sites as the South Pass Historic Landscape, the Tri-Territorial Marker, the Overland Trail, the Cherokee Trail, the Pony Express Trail and the Oregon, California and Mormon Pioneer Trails.
Such legendary figures as Chief Washakie and Jim Bridger hunted here, outlaws such as Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid hid from the law here, and mountain men Jedediah Smith, Kit Carson and others explored the Red Desert before the West was settled. From world-class hunting to wilderness hiking, wildlife watching and fossil hunting, the desert provides something for everyone.
WOC's Jack Morrow Hills Campaign goal is to ensure this study area's viability while limiting oil and gas development and road building within its boundaries and supporting responsible grazing, hunting, recreation and off-road vehicle use in this "Wild Heart of the West."

For the past seven years, the Wyoming Outdoor Council has focused on protecting the 620,000-acre Jack Morrow Hills Study Area in the northwestern Red Desert through the BLM’s planning process. We are still working hard to protect this area, but our efforts have shifted. Our current goal it to have Congress designate the Jack Morrow Hills as a National Conservation Area.

This effort has historical support. Americans resoundingly spoke up for protecting the Jack Morrow Hills throughout the Rock Springs’ BLM Field Office’s planning process for the area. There were nearly 100,000 comments written in support of conservation of the Red Desert’s wildlife, open spaces, unique landforms and cultural history.

Unfortunately, the BLM failed to respond to these comments, and the plan they released in 2004 did little to protect the Jack Morrow Hills from irresponsible oil and gas development.

WOC and many others filed protests of the plan in August 2004. According to the law, the BLM should have responded to our protests in 90 days. That deadline has come and gone and the BLM has still not made a decision.

We are currently waiting for the BLM’s response and, at the same time, are gearing up for a national campaign promoting National Conservation Area designation.
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