Biodiversity Conservation Alliance * Friends of the Red Desert
Wyoming Wilderness Association * Wyoming Wildlife Federation

For Immediate Release
June 29, 2006

Adobe Town Conservation Summit Scheduled to Address Future of Crown Jewel Area

Contact Information

ROCK SPRINGS – Conservation groups announced today the Adobe Town Conservation Summit, which will be held on Saturday July 8th at the Western Wyoming Community College in Rock Springs as a public forum to discuss the future of Adobe Town. Adobe Town is the largest potential desert wilderness in Wyoming, and takes in a landscape of dazzling pinnacles, arches, window rocks, and towering cliffs in the public lands of the southern Red Desert, about 60 miles southeast of Rock Springs. The Summit will be held in a town hall meeting format, with panels of experts and stakeholders giving short presentations and then taking questions and comments from the audience.

“This is a great opportunity for the public to come out and learn more about the unique attributes of Adobe Town from a wide-range of experts, to ask questions regarding the area, and to voice their opinions about how Adobe Town should be managed in the future,” said Joy Owen of Friends of the Red Desert.

“Our goal is to bring all of the diverse interests together to talk about the future of Adobe Town, and how conservation measures fit into the bigger picture of oil and gas development in the Red Desert as a whole,” said Maggie Schafer, Community Organizer with Biodiversity Conservation Alliance. “We’re looking forward to a lively dialogue involving the public, conservation groups, and industry, which will hopefully build some consensus on how Adobe Town should be managed in the future.”

Much of Adobe Town falls within the BLM’s Great Divide Resource Management Plan, which is presently being revised by the Rawlins office of the BLM. This is a landscape of high conservation interest.

“Wyoming Wildlife Federation considers Adobe Town a high priority due to its important wildlife values, such as its abundance of nesting raptors and its trophy antelope hunting opportunities,” said Dave Gowdey, Director of the Wyoming Wildlife Federation.

“Adobe Town encompasses a unique geological formation with spires, caprocks, and a badland setting, and is probably the most unique of the three crown jewel areas in the Red Desert,” said Mike Guy, a hunter and long-time Red Desert enthusiast. “This area should receive the highest priority for conservation attention.”

A little less than half of Adobe Town currently falls within a Wilderness Study Area (WSA) protected by the BLM, while the remainder has the potential for wilderness but is currently unprotected. One alternative in the plan revision would provide protection for some of the wilderness-quality lands outside the WSA. The Western Heritage Alternative, proposed by conservation and sportsmen’s groups for the Great Divide plan revision (but not considered as yet by the BLM) proposes withdrawing all of Adobe Town from future oil and gas leasing, while grandfathering in current leases.

"Adobe Town’s landscapes will never yield a significant economic return, but the conversation about Adobe Town's role in providing a place for incomparable solitude, contemplation, awe, quiet and beauty that is only of wilderness—has to happen and happen soon, or we will forever regret making uneducated choices that could destroy Adobe Town.” said Liz Howell, Director of Wyoming Wilderness Association.

The Rawlins BLM is currently developing its final plan for the Great Divide region and is addressing concerns raised in over 65,000 public comments; the new plan will decide the management for Adobe Town over the next 10 to 15 years.

The agenda for the event follows:

•    10:30 a.m. - Photographic tour of Adobe Town

•    11:15 Technical Panel: Craig Thompson (National Wildlife Federation, professor at Western Wyoming Community College); Gary Long (BLM State Office Wilderness Expert), Lloyd Eisenhauer (BLM retired); Jay Lillegraven  (paleontologist, UW retired); Tim Woolley (Wyoming Game & Fish Dept.); Gary deMarcay (former Rawlins BLM archaeologist)

•    12:45 p.m. Light refreshments served

•    1:30 Interest Group Panel: Joyce Corcoran (Wyoming Council of Churches); Richard Baldes (Native American – Wind River Alliance); Dick Inberg (Backcountry Horsemen's Assn.); Mary Hay (rancher); Mike Burd (Steelworkers’ Union); Petroleum Assn. Of Wyoming (TBA)

•    3:30 Adjourn

“We encourage everyone who has an interest in the Adobe Town area to attend and take part in this important discussion,” concluded Schafer.