Yet it is this incomparable landscape that oil and gas companies intend to drill at unparalleled levels (see The Next Powder River Basin?). Impacts associated with projected levels of drilling include destruction of critical wildlife habitat, blockage of key wildlife migration routes, thousands of miles of roads, pipelines and transmission lines, fisheries damage, significant air and noise pollution, the loss of open space and healthy communities in the valley.

The main goal of our Upper Green River Valley Campaign, which in coalition with a number of other conservation groups is focusing on the Resource Management Plan (RMP) revision process, is to balance energy development in the Valley with natural resource protection (for more, see our Responsible Energy Development Proposal Executive Summary).

At the behest of the oil and gas industry, officials in the Bureau of Land Management's (BLM's) Pinedale Field Office currently are fast-tracking the revision of the overarching management plan - commonly referred to as the Resource Management Plan (RMP) - that will guide the agency's actions for the next one to two decades. The decisions made now, in this RMP revision process, will permanently impact our national public lands, our wildlife herds, our air and water quality, and the lives of many who live in local Wyoming communities. The RMP revision process offers the public and conservation community alike a rare opportunity to influence the management on over one million acres of the public lands that link the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem together.