LARAMIE—The BLM has just released a Final Environmental Impact Statement for the Jack Morrow Hills long-term management plan. This is an area with important wildlife and wilderness resources that the agency originally set aside from its larger Green River Resource Management Plant as a result of public concerns about development.

The proposed Plan withdraws some areas to oil and gas leasing and expands the Steamboat Mountain Area of Critical Environmental Concern, but does little to protect sage grouse strutting grounds, elk migration corridors, and over 150,000 acres of pristine lands that had been identified as potential wilderness. “This plan shows that the BLM remains committed to squeezing oil and gas development into even the most sensitive landscapes,” said Erik Molvar, a wildlife biologist for Biodiversity Conservation Alliance. “It is disappointing that, despite a massive outpouring of local support for conservation, the BLM has chosen oil and gas drilling over protection for some of the most outstanding wildlife habitats and pristine wilderness left in the Red Desert.”