The towering and spectacularly lush Roan Plateau is located just northwest of Rifle, Colorado. Rising precipitously 3,500 feet above the Colorado River valley, the dramatic Roan Plateau cliffs ascend to a broad and rolling plateau. Several streams flow from the area, forming stunning box canyons on their way down the cliff walls. The East Fork Falls waterfall drops 200 feet over the western edge of the plateau, and in a few places perennial seeps create magical hanging gardens over small creek beds.

In addition to its many ecological values, Roan Plateau is one of the more biologically diverse areas in western Colorado and a favorite destination for hunting, fishing and backcountry recreation. The incredible variation in soils and elevation (5,000 to 9,000 feet) creates spectacular and diverse scenery and an array of habitats including juniper woodlands, mountain mahogany, Gambel oak, Douglas fir, aspen, and wildflower meadows. The rich soils sprout several rare plant species.

The plateau provides year-round habitat for such big game animals as mule deer, elk, black bear and mountain lion, as well as the federally listed peregrine falcon and bald eagle. It is also home to Colombian sharptail grouse, sage grouse, great basin spadefoot toads, northern leopard frogs, and bats. Northwater Creek hosts one of the world's most genetically pure populations of Colorado River cutthroat trout.

According to the Colorado Natural Heritage Program, Roan Plateau has one of the great concentrations of biodiversity in the state: “We are aware of only three additional areas of comparable size in western Colorado that document such a high richness of species of concern.” Of these four areas, the Roan Plateau is the only one still unprotected.

In 1999, citizen wilderness advocates joined with Bureau of Land Management (BLM) staff, local officials, and industry representatives to inventory the potential wilderness values of Roan Plateau. As a result, the BLM confirmed significant wilderness characteristics in three large areas—the northeast cliffs, the southeast cliffs, and East Fork of Parachute Creek atop the plateau—a total of 19,322 acres of agency-declared potential wilderness. A fourth parcel along Trapper Creek, also on top, was rejected by the BLM because of minimal human disturbance.

The Colorado Wilderness Network has included all four potential wilderness areas in its Roan Plateau Citizens’ Wilderness Proposal. These 38,000 acres constitute about half of the BLM’s planning area. Congresswoman Diana DeGette of Colorado has introduced legislation to designate Roan Plateau a component of the National Wilderness Preservation System along with other deserving BLM lands across the state.

Roan Plateau is an island of undisturbed rich natural values surrounded by a sea of intense gas drilling and development on both public and private land.

Roan Plateau has no formal protection, although much of the cliffs and top of the plateau are 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.

Management of the Roan Plateau was transferred to the BLM from the Department of Energy in 1997, requiring the BLM to conduct a public planning process to develop a management plan for the area. The final plan, expected this fall, will determine, among other things, whether the area will be leased for oil and gas development.

Conservation groups have pressed BLM to protect the wildlands on the plateau from damaging development, in particular oil and gas leasing, until Congress can consider them for wilderness designation. The campaign in support of protecting the cliffs and top of the plateau has been embraced by a remarkable diversity of supporters, including outfitters, outdoor sporting groups, wildlife advocates, local businesses, and the major regional newspaper for western Colorado. Public support for protecting the plateau is nearly universal. Every local government in Garfield County (where Roan Plateau stands) opposes gas drilling on top of the plateau.

The Wilderness Society has contributed its expertise in ecological and economic research, presentation technologies, and news media outreach to this campaign. We effectively challenged the BLM’s excessive estimate of gas available under the plateau, put the contemplated leasing there in context among the excessive volume of unused leases in the region, and combined GIS and animation techniques to visually illustrate damage to the plateau that would come with development.

As of 2004, the oil and gas industry has leased more than 3.4 million acres of federal lands in Colorado for oil and gas development, but has produced resources on less than 40 percent of those acres. The BLM issued nearly 400 drilling permits in fiscal year 2004, but the industry only drilled on a little over half of these.

Nonetheless, because of its location within the gas-rich Piceance Basin, the oil and gas industry has placed Roan Plateau high on its wish list. Although no oil and gas leasing can occur on top of the plateau during the planning process, the final management plan will determine the fate of the proposed wilderness areas.

As it is with many areas across the West, the BLM is under tremendous pressure to open Roan Plateau to energy development. The current Administration’s energy policies have rolled back many existing environmental protections for public lands. One such provision directs the BLM to study and remove “impediments” to oil and gas development on public lands, including certain restrictions that protect wildlife habitat, watersheds, and scenery. Broader federal energy policy, as approved by Congress, also contains billions of dollars of subsidies for the oil and gas industry that would make it economical to develop remote places on our public lands that might otherwise be protected for other values.

The BLM considers gas potential to be moderate to high along the base of Roan Plateau, and some areas have already been leased and are being drilled. Because of the oil and gas industry’s interest, completion of the Roan Plateau management plan has been put on a fast-track timeline to promote additional oil and gas development. Strong public support for protecting the plateau, and the citizens’ campaign recruiting that support, has succeeded in slowing the rush to development.

Many of the lands in the areas surrounding the Roan Plateau have already seen natural gas drilling and production. The gas well pads, wells, and roads on private and public lands at the base of the Roan Cliffs have transformed the landscape into an industrial network of ugly scars that fragment wildlife habitat. Meanwhile, one-third of the lands on top of the plateau are owned by oil and gas companies. Roads are already being built to these private lands, which will likely experience heavy oil and gas development. This should not be the fate of the federal public wild lands in the area.

The cliffs and uplands of Roan Plateau include some of the last wild tracts of public land in the region, providing much needed wildlife habitat and backcountry recreation opportunities in the rapidly developing Colorado River valley. Two thirds of land on the top of the plateau remains pristine and deserving of wilderness protection.

Roan Plateau is an island of undisturbed rich natural values surrounded by a sea of intense gas drilling and development on both public and private land. This makes the plateau’s undeveloped character all the more important for wildlife, as well as for the hunters, anglers, hikers, sightseers, and the local economies that depend on Roan Plateau remaining wild.

The public lands portions of Roan Plateau’s top and cliffs—including all four components of the Citizens’ Wilderness Proposal—should be designated by Congress as Wilderness, and streams rising atop the plateau should be designated as Wild and Scenic Rivers, thus giving the permanent protection that the area deserves.

In any event, the cliffs and top of Roan Plateau should not be opened to gas drilling unless and until drilling can be accomplished without occupying the surface (for example, through direction drilling from the base of the plateau) or damaging the natural values of this magnificent place.

Meanwhile, the Roan Plateau management plan must provide protective stipulations that protect seasonal wildlife habitat throughout the planning area at all elevations. Gas development could proceed, slowly and cautiously, in carefully selected locations around the base of the plateau if designed, controlled, and reasonably paced to protect the area’s natural values.

Steve Smith, The Wilderness Society, 303/650-5818, ext. 106
Clare Bastable, Colorado Mountain Club, 970-618-1341

Web site: www.saveroanplateau.org