Roadless areas leased over protests

Deborah Frazier, Rocky Mountain News

Published August 11, 2006 at midnight

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The 14 parcels of roadless Forest Service land leased for energy development Thursday went for premium prices compared with bids on unprotected areas.

The top bid on a roadless area was $300 per acre for 1,117 acres in Mesa County near Grand Junction, said Vaughn Whatley of the Bureau of Land Management.

The average price on the 118 parcels offered, totaling 139,555 acres, was $32.97 per acre, but the bid on many parcels was $2 an acre - the lowest allowed - Whatley said.

The identities of the oil and gas companies that purchased the leases weren't available, officials said.

The 14 roadless parcels, about 14,400 acres and 11 percent of the land drawing bids, were promised roadless protections by the Bush administration in 2005.

Sen. Ken Salazar, D-Colo., Rep. John Salazar, D-Colo., and Bill Ritter, Democratic candidate for governor, had asked federal officials to withdraw the roadless parcels from the lease sale, but received no response.

"Sen. Ken Salazar is going to see what other steps can be taken," said Cody Wertz, Salazar's spokesman. "We hope that partisan politics is not a part of this."

"The leases give them the right to build roads if there is no stipulation against roads," said Keith Bauerle, an attorney for Earthjustice, which filed multiple protests of the sales on behalf of wildlife groups.

Only four of the roadless areas leased had "no roads" requirements, but a forest supervisor can override that, he said.

In all, 158 parcels of Forest Service, BLM and private land were offered for sale, 127 had protests filed and only 118 drew bids.

While most of the protests were filed by Colorado conservation groups, the Gunnison County commissioners protested six leases on roadless areas in their county.

"The BLM is on a rampage to lease every acre they can without consideration of the impacts on the public, wildlife habitat and clean air and water," said Jacob Smith of the Center for Native Ecosystems.

Sloan Shoemaker of the Wilderness Workshop in Carbondale said 90 percent of the public comments to the state's roadless task force favored roadless areas.

The 13-member task force will make recommendations to Gov. Bill Owens in September on 4.1 million roadless acres, but has declined to seek interim protections.

"Colorado is doing more than it's share in meeting the nation's energy demands and all we ask is that some of these last, best wild places be left that way," said Shoemaker.

Several conservationists pointed out that federal judges in Wyoming and Utah had upheld protests against oil and gas leases in roadless areas.

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