The Forest Service is considering a proposal to drill an oil well inside the Duck Creek Roadless Area, one of only six officially recognized roadless areas on the Thunder Basin National Grassland. The agency is taking public comments on the proposal.

The comment period has been extended until October 15th, so you still have time to tell the Forest Service to protect Duck Creek!

The Duck Creek Roadless Area, north of Gillette in the Little Powder River valley, encompasses pristine grasslands and groves of ponderosa pine, some of the finest wildlife habitat in northeast Wyoming. Disappearing wildlife like the ferruginous hawk and black-tailed prairie dog still hold sway here. But Yates Petroleum wants to move into the roadless area with bulldozers and drilling rigs, employing the highest-impact drilling techniques known to man.

Ask the Forest Service to choose a low-impact alternative instead. The agency should:

• Move the proposed well site to the very edge of the roadless area, and require that access roads be built outside roadless lands.
  
  
• Employ low-impact techniques like using two-track routes for vehicle access rather than building high-standard roads, using "closed-loop" drilling techniques to reduce wellpad size, laying down removable mats for initial heavy equipment access, heliporting drilling rigs, and removing oil by pipeline instead of trucking it out.

Roadless areas are no place to build an oilfield. Send your comments, postmarked or e-mailed by October 15th, to emoncrief@fs.fed.us or

Liz Moncrief
Medicine Bow – Routt National Forest
2468 Jackson Street
Laramie, Wyoming 82070