We need your help to get state protections for Adobe Town! Adobe Town needs you to come to the hearing or send in written comments in support of the Very Rare or Uncommon designation from the standpoint of your expertise and experience. This is where the battle will be fought!

The Wyoming Environmental Quality Council has set the date for public hearings on a 'Very Rare or Uncommon' petition to protect Adobe Town. The hearing will be held October 24th beginning at 9:00 a.m. at the BLM Rock Springs Field Office, 280 Highway 191 N. in the Pilot Butte Conference Room. The EQC will take testimony from the public from 9:00 a.m. to 4:00. If people are there at 5:00, the EQC will take testimony then and into the evening. Testimony will also be heard the following day, October 25th at 9:00 a.m. also IF people are waiting to testify.

If you are unable to attend the hearing in person, please write down your comments and mail them to:

Environmental Quality Council, 122 West 25th St.
Herschler Bldg., Cheyenne, WY 82002

FOR MAXIMUM IMPACT PLEASE PLAN TO HAVE YOUR COMMENTS RECEIVED BY THE EQC NO LATER THAN OCTOBER 17TH.

This land designation protects areas from non-coal surface mining under state law and prevents mining permits from being issued. It would protect the area from oil shale mining and uranium mining, both of which are looming threats in the southern Red Desert, and is part of a broader effort to protect all of Adobe Town from heavy industry. Although it would not affect oil and gas leasing and development, this protective designation would send a strong message that Adobe Town needs to be prioritized for conservation and public enjoyment, not industrial use, and might help convince the BLM to do its part to prevent future oil and gas leasing there.

ADOBE TOWN TALKING POINTS

Under state regulations, in order to qualify as 'Very Rare or Uncommon,' an area must possess one or more of the following attributes: historical, archaeological, wildlife, surface geological, botanical or scenic value. In particular the following criteria are relevant to Adobe Town:

* HISTORICAL, PRE-HISTORICAL OR ARCHAEOLOGICAL VALUE - defined as mentioned prominently in historic journals, associated with cultural or religious traditions, contains structures or artifacts. Adobe Town figures prominently in the reports of the 1869 Geological Exploration of the 40 th Parallel, which named many of the area's features. Butch Cassidy had a rock cabin in the Powder Rim portion of the unit and hid fresh horses in the Haystacks during the Tipton train robbery. The area has a history of human habitation dating back 12,000 years, with an unusually high density of archaeological sites.

* WILDLIFE VALUES - relevant provisions include irreplaceable wildlife habitats, crucial ranges defined by the Wyoming Game and Fish Department, fragile lands with unique scientific values, high priority for migratory birds, or golden eagle or falcon nest sites. In Adobe Town, The Haystacks and Powder Rim contain mule deer crucial winter range.  The Horseshoe to the south of The Haystacks contains substantial pronghorn crucial winter range. The rare mountain plover finds nesting habitat in this area as well and there are several sage grouse leks (dancing grounds) along the Willow Creek Rim at the eastern edge of the proposed area. The rims afford outstanding nesting habitat for raptors and golden eagles are known to nest in The Haystacks and along the Skull Creek and Adobe Town Rims, while prairie falcons are known to nest along the Adobe Town and Skull Creek Rims and south of The Haystacks.

* GEOLOGICAL VALUES - defined as unique geological features, fossil resources, or geological resources with unusual recreational, scientific, or aesthetic value. The Adobe Town member of the Washakie formation is a thousand-foot-deep bed of volcanic ash deposited during eruptions in Yellowstone over 50 million years ago. It crops out on a magnificent scale in The Haystacks and the Skull Creek Rim, forming palisades a thousand feet tall and is whittled into pillars, arches, mud caves, window rocks, multi-colored badlands and pedestals throughout the area, most intricately along the Adobe Town Rim. These outcrops offer magnificent recreational opportunities for hiking and nature study in The Haystacks, the Adobe Town Rim, the Skull Creek Rim and along the base of the Powder Rim. Everywhere the formation crops-out, it offers world-class fossil deposits that offer Eocene-era fossils including such mammals as the uintathere (a rhinoceros-like animal) and the taeniodont (a large tapir-like creature) as well as crocodilians and turtles that inhabited the subtropical swamps at the time.

* SCENIC VALUES - defined as whether the area has substantial aesthetic value and whether the area has been the subject of substantial artistic attention from artists, photographers, sculptors or writers. Adobe Town has been featured in several books (e.g. Wind River Wilderness, Wild Wyoming) and magazines (incl. National Geographic, bugle, Wilderness Magazine and Wyoming Wildlife). Geologic features of high scenic value are found along all of the high rims. Particularly important to note is that the flats below the high rims, while not scenic themselves, are in a pristine state and form the critically important scenic backdrop for the geological features; these flats also need to be protected so that the scenic integrity of the rims can be preserved and not despoiled by vast stretches of industrial development.

Industry interests who oppose the effort are trying to limit protection to the Wilderness Study Area only which is already protected from mining activities. The Biodiversity Conservation Alliance and 7 other conservation groups submitted the petition to protect approximately 180,000 acres in the area stretching from The Haystacks to the Powder Rim and including the wild country at the foot of the Skull Creek Rim which is so important to protecting the natural view shed which forms the background for the spectacular cliffs of the Skull Creek Rim. A key aspect of our petition is to protect the lands that are part of the landscape when you are inside the Wilderness Study Area so that you can actually have a wilderness experience looking out from the many overlooks on the cliff tops instead of looking out across an industrial gas field.

For more information, read the entire Very Rare or Uncommon petition for Adobe Town at http://deq.state.wy.us/eqc/Docket/07-1101%20Adobe%20Town/07-1101%20Adobe%20Town.htm

Key unprotected areas outside the Wilderness Study Area include:

* THE HAYSTACKS - A huge ridge of badlands 1,000 feet tall, dissected into a maze of small canyons and pillars. Outstanding fossil deposits, raptor nesting sites, mule deer crucial winter range, its own population of mountain lions and scenic values. It’s in the "checkerboard" (where land ownership varies from square mile to square mile) so the proposed designation would only protect the federal sections while BCA works to consolidate the land ownership through land swaps with the surface and mineral owners of the private sections.

* THE WILLOW CREEK RIM AND BADLANDS - At the eastern edge of the unit, the area features scenic cliffs and eroded badlands farther east, with sage grouse leks atop the rims. Unlike the Washakie Formation, this area has blocky, regular ranks of cliffs.

* FLATS AT THE BASE OF THE SKULL CREEK RIM - Protection of these lands is key to maintaining the present pristine view shed that can be enjoyed from the top of the Skull Creek Rim, the tall palisade of ash that lies inside the Wilderness Study Area. Industrialization of these flats would create an eyesore that would degrade the wilderness experience of visitors atop the Skull Creek Rim.

* POWDER RIM - With colorful badlands at its base and slopes clad in ancient juniper woodlands above, this ridge is also an important part of the view shed for visitors along the southern part of the Skull Creek Rim and is scenic in its own right. This is where Butch Cassidy's cabin ruins are found. The juniper woodlands offer habitat for 9 of Wyoming’s 10 juniper obligate songbirds (including Scott's oriole and Bewick's wren), most of which are very rare in Wyoming, and also offer crucial mule deer winter range and year-long habitat for the Petition desert elk herd.

ON BEHALF OF ADOBE TOWN AND THE WILD NATIVE SPECIES THAT CALL IT HOME, THANK YOU FOR TAKING ACTION!