Click here for the complete Jack Morrow Hills Record of Decision

The Special Values of the Jack Morrow Hills Area Report (PDF)

Some public land should get special protection (July 26, 2006) Star-Tribune Editorial Board

Citizens Demand Red Desert Protection

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The Jack Morrow Hills Study Area is the 620,000-acre heart of the 8 million acre Greater Red Desert. It is home to the largest migratory game herd in the lower 48 states, some 50,000 pronghorn antelope. The largest desert elk herd in America inhabits the area in addition to mountain lions, coyotes, golden eagles, ferruginous hawks, and bands of wild horses. Some 350

View of the Honeycomb Buttes from Continental Peak Photo by Erik Molvar

species of wildlife in all find shelter in this remote region. The largest active sand dune system in the United States and seven Wilderness Study areas are some of the other superlatives in this stunning desert landscape of multi-colored buttes, rolling sagebrush bluffs, and mysterious hoodoos. The Oregon, California, Mormon, and Pony Express Trails traverse the area, and to this day the area evokes images of the remarkable grit and courage of our pioneer ancestors. Before them came the mountain men-giants like Jedediah Smith, who may have been seeking to explore this wild, isolated country, just as today's visitors do, as much as to trap beaver and hunt bison.

Unfortunately, the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) has decided to give priority to oil and gas development over these rare and irreplaceable resources in its just-released Supplemental Draft Environmental Impact Statement for the Jack Morrow Hills Study Area, allowing for several hundred new oil and gas wells to be drilled in sensitive wildlife habitats. Although the plan would allow increased energy development throughout much of the Jack Morrow Hills Area, the part that will be hardest hit is land adjacent to Steamboat Mountain, a Shoshone Indian holy site and ancient Native American buffalo jump site, giving preference instead to natural gas drilling. BLM's plan would ensure a spider-web of new roads, utility lines and drilling rigs would slowly be woven over the next fifteen years, destroying the wild character of this spectacular desert. Even if every acre of the Jack Morrow Hills was developed and all of the technically recoverable oil and gas was extracted, well beyond the scope of this plan, it would only provide the United States with 9 weeks of natural gas and 39 minutes of oil!

In 2000, after the BLM released its first draft Jack Morrow Hills plan during the Clinton Administration, the agency was deluged with thousands of comments. Approximately 95% of the letters, faxes, post cards and e-mails received by BLM called for further protection of the

Elk in Great Divide Basin Photo by Scott Smith

Red Desert. Then Interior Secretary Bruce Babbitt, motivated by the overwhelming national concern about the Jack Morrow Hills, visited the area and called for BLM to redraft a plan with conservation as a priority. But the Bush Administration overturned the "Babbitt Directive", ordering the BLM to redraft the plan, but without conservation as a priority. BLM's Supplemental Draft Environmental Impact Statement for the Jack Morrow Hills Study Area reflects this changed policy, giving short shrift to protecting the magnificent natural features of the Jack Morrow Hills Area. And the Jack Morrow Hills plan is but one of several efforts by BLM and the Administration to dramatically increase drilling on public lands in Wyoming, including the Pinedale, Great Divide, and Powder River Basin areas.

Fortunately, a coalition of conservation groups, hunting groups, businesses, and ranchers in Wyoming, in addition to numerous national organizations, have developed the Citizens' Wildlife and Wildlands Alternative. This balanced plan would protect the irreplaceable resources in the Jack Morrow Hills Study Area and ensure that oil and gas development and other resource extraction activities do not destroy these values. The citizens' alternative would allow many existing uses such as hunting and grazing to continue in a responsible way, while increasing protections for potential wilderness areas, Native American sacred areas, and pioneer trails. It would also ensure the long-term survival of the Red Desert elk herd, the huge pronghorn antelope herd that occupies the area, and the 350 other species of wildlife that inhabit the Jack Morrow Hills Study Area. It would give priority to restoring and protecting air and water quality and rehabilitate areas damaged by unneeded or poorly constructed roads and pipelines. It calls for trading or buying out mineral leases in the area while prohibiting further oil and gas leasing, oil and gas development and large-scale mining. While ecologically responsible oil and gas development is appropriate on many of our nation' s public lands, this area - the Jack Morrow Hills - is simply too wild to waste!

Citizens have fought to protect the Red Desert since 1898 when Wyoming hunters attempted to designate much of the area as a Winter Game Preserve. Since then there have been attempts to protect the Jack Morrow Hills Area as a National Park, a National Wildlife Refuge, a wild horse refuge, and a North American Antelope Range. Now, over a century later, it is more crucial than ever to take action to help ensure this magnificent area is protected!