As President Obama gives his annual State of the Union address, those of us at The Wilderness Society feel the timing is urgent to give our own “State of Public Lands” briefing.

As the nation's premiere public lands conservation organization, we’re happy to report that the Obama administration has begun to correct the most industry-centric land policies of the Bush era, a time when vast tracks of the nation’s wildlands were offered on a platter to oil and gas development.

Once one of the original land grants from Spain, the Baca Ranch became a national wildlife refuge in 2000, part of the Great Sand Dunes National Park and Preserve Act of 2000. That Act also expanded the national park and preserve and added additional acreage to the Rio Grande National Forest. It is Colorado’s newest and largest refuge, an integral part of the greater Baca public lands complex.

We’re approaching the 4th of July holiday which allows us a moment to stop and celebrate our country’s independence. The Wilderness Society has another reason to celebrate this week as well. Yesterday the Bureau of Land Management’s Little Snake Field Office in Northwest Colorado announced a major victory—Vermillion Basin in Northwest Colorado will be off-limits to oil and gas drilling. This was a long and hard fought process by our Colorado staff and our coalition partners.

Even after the Gulf oil spill and as the evidence that BP sidestepped safety precautions mounts, it’s alarming that decision makers continue to give the oil and gas industry unbridled liberties to drill without precaution in the public’s lands and waters.

Polar bears, bowhead whales, and native communities are safe from the oil spill devastation that their Gulf coast counterparts are still dealing with. The Obama Administration has announced that they are postponing oil drilling in the Chukchi and Beaufort Seas off of Alaska’s northern coast until at least 2011. That includes Shell Oil’s plans to do risky exploratory drilling this summer.

The decision comes as part of a larger report on the Deepwater Horizon disaster that was delivered to the President by Department of Interior Secretary Ken Salazar.