More Info on the Jack Morrow Hills CAP

The Jack Morrow Hills Area of Wyoming's Red Desert is a national treasure. It is a windswept land with multicolored sandstone badlands, migrating sand dunes, unique wetlands, ancient volcanic cores, and the largest herd of desert elk in the world in addition to numerous pronghorn antelope, deer, raptors and over 350 other wildlife species.

Unfortunately, the BLM, which manages the Jack Morrow Hills, didn't recognize the uniqueness and tremendous worth of the area in it's Draft Environmental Impact Statement and would prefer to manage it like one of the many oil and gas fields that sprawl across Wyoming. Only a strong outpouring of public opposition will swerve the agency from its course of drilling this incredible place. It will be important to let the agency know that you do not support their preferred alternative (that proposes hundreds of new oil and coalbed methane wells) when the they are again ready to accept public comment. We will notify you when this time comes. To learn how to help ensure protection of the Jack Morrow Hills right now, please read on.

Thanks to you, over 65,000 comments have already been received by the BLM on its draft plan, overwhelmingly in favor of saving this breathtaking place. The BLM is currently reviewing these comments and will release a final plan some time this fall. But in order to overcome the powerful anti-environmental pressure coming from Washington D.C, it will require everyone's help. Even though the BLM's public comment period has ended, we can still save this place by asking other government officials to conserve the wildlands and wildlife of the Jack Morrow Hills. It is critical that concerned citizens contact the decision-makers listed below. These officials will be highly influential in the final stages of the Jack Morrow Hills planning process and in any future Congressional efforts to protect the Jack Morrow and other parts of the Red Desert as a National Conservation Area. (A National Conservation Area designation would allow for responsible recreation, hunting, ATV use and grazing while calling for the trade or buyout of mineral leases in the study area and the designation of wilderness in the Jack Morrow Hills and other jewels within the Red Desert such as Adobe Town and Cow Creek.)

Scroll down to review draft letters to decision-makers, but keep in mind that more personalized comments carry more weight in the eyes of these officials. Wyoming citizens, please write to:

Governor Dave Freudenthal
Governor's Office
State Capitol, Room 124
Cheyenne, WY 82002
Phone: (307) 777-7434
Governor@state.wy.us

And

Senator Craig Thomas
U.S. Senate
307 Dirksen Senate Office Building
Washington, DC 20510
senator@thomas.senate.gov

U.S. and world citizens, please write to:

BLM Director, Bob Bennett Bob_Bennett@blm.gov

And

Gale Norton
Secretary
Department of the Interior
1849 C Street, NW
Washington, DC 20240
Gale_Norton@ios.doi.gov

Tell these officials that the Red Desert is an important part of Wyoming's heritage and should be given the strongest protection possible.

Tell them to support the Citizens' Wildlife and Wildlands Alternative for the Jack Morrow Hills. This balanced alternative is the best plan for protecting the natural beauty and ecological integrity of the Red Desert. It would:

1. Call for the trade or buy-out of mineral leases in the area, while prohibiting all new oil and gas leasing and large-scale mining,
2. Restore and protect wildlife habitat damaged by roads and pipelines,
3. Prevent new roads and developments in roadless areas, increase the size of some Wilderness Study Areas (WSAs), establish new WSAs for lands identified as wilderness-quality by citizen's inventories, and recommend that all deserving WSAs and wildlands be designated as wilderness by Congress,
4. Give priority to the restoration and protection of air and water quality
5. Ensure the long-term survival of the Red Desert elk and pronghorn antelope herds and other wildlife populations,
6. Allow for responsible recreation, hunting, off-road vehicle use, grazing and continued access via existing, designated roads,
7. Protect culturally significant areas revered by Native Americans.
8. Provide increased protection for nationally significant trails like the Pony Express Trail and the Oregon Pioneer Trail.

Specific Comments for Wyoming Citizens:

• Thank Governor Freudenthal for his comments calling for the protection of some special areas and Native American holy sites in the Jack Morrow Hills and tell him that he has your support in any future effort he makes to protect the Jack Morrow Hills.
• Tell Senator Thomas that you support the Wildlife and Wildlands Alternative, but are concerned that the BLM will not provide that level of protection. Ask him to support any future efforts to create a National Conservation Area that includes the Jack Morrow Hills.