Biodiversity Conservation Alliance * Friends of the Red Desert

NEWS RELEASE

For Immediate Release
July 13, 2006

Adobe Town Summit Highlights Unique Values of Proposed Wilderness

Contact Information

ROCK SPRINGS – Conservation groups last Saturday held a summit in Rock Springs to highlight the unique values of the Adobe Town proposed wilderness area, one of the premiere areas of conservation concern in the Red Desert. Approximately 60 attendees participated and represented a broad array of interests and viewpoints.

“The Badlands of South Dakota [a National Park] pale in comparison to Adobe Town,” said panelist Craig Thompson, a professor of Engineering and Earth Science at Western Wyoming Community College. “Very little scientific research has been done on this area and it has great potential to yield important information. For example, we know almost nothing about the area’s hydrology. It should be preserved as wilderness.”

Audience members raised significant concerns about the prospect of oil and gas drilling in the Adobe Town area. According to Dr. Ron Surdam, the Director of the Wyoming State Geological Survey, “There could be close to 15,000 new wells in the area around Adobe Town including the Great Divide, Atlantic Rim, and Vermillion Basin, putting additional pressure on Adobe Town during the next 5 to 15 years.”

Other audience members raised concerns that increased tourism could follow protective designation, raising the potential of damage to the landscape from recreational use.

The comments of Dr. Jay Lillegraven, a paleontologist and retired University of Wyoming professor, reflected the opinions of the majority of panelists and audience members at the event. “We are talking world-class, national park quality scenery and arid-land habitat,” remarked Dr. Lillegraven. “Such places must be preserved as oases for the wild inhabitants and for human escape from the realities of modern life.”

The Summit also included a presentation on Adobe Town's high conservation priority as part of the Adobe Town - Vermillion Core Area in the Heart of the West Conservation Plan, a regional-scale conservation model that identifies the most important core areas and connecting corridors, as well as "Sustainable Development Areas" where industrial use is most appropriate. This science-based plan was developed by the Wild Utah Project and other conservation groups based on ecologically important habitat for a number of focal species.

According to Lloyd Eisenhauer, a retired Rawlins BLM Area Manager, “Adobe Town has a special quality – a tour area quality. There should be more advocacy for Adobe Town and for wild horses. The Overland and Cherokee [Historic] Trails should be included in the protected area.”

“I feel that it [Adobe Town] should be given permanent wilderness status, and we simply must not destroy this place in favor of short-term economic gains,” added Lillegraven. We cannot let all of Wyoming become a landscape resembling the I-80 corridor.”