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Dear Friend:
Rock Creek, one of the biggest and most beautiful roadless areas
of the Medicine Bow National Forest in Wyoming (view
photo), is being threatened by a newly proposed oil and gas
invasion. Please send a letter today telling the Forest Service
to keep drilling rigs out of the Rock Creek Roadless Areas. Your
comments are needed now to stop this proposal.
BACKGROUND
The Medicine Bow National Forest in south-central Wyoming is a beautiful,
biologically diverse part of the Southern Rockies. It is also one
the most commercially exploited, with dozens of clearcuts marring
the landscape. Nearly 99% of the forest is within 2 miles of a road,
and only 7% of the Forest is protected as wilderness. The last wild
areas of the Medicine Bow deserve the highest level of protection
in order to preserve this natural treasure.
ROCK CREEK: A ROADLESS GEM
Covering over 20,000 acres, the Rock Creek Roadless Area on the
Med-Bow contains a deep canyon, bounded by steep forested slopes
and dramatic cliff outcrops. The area provides habitat for elk and
black bear as well as disappearing animals like the northern goshawk,
boreal owl, wood frog, and boreal toad. Lynx and wolverine once
inhabited this wild forest. Rock Creek Roadless Area is also valued
for the recreational opportunities it provides. It is a favorite
destination for hikers, campers, anglers, hunters, and mountain
bikers. It is one of the best-loved roadless areas on the Forest.
THE THREAT:
OIL & GAS EXPLORATION COULD HARM ROCK CREEK'S WILD SIDE.
The oil industry now has the Rock Creek Roadless Area squarely in
its sights. The industry recently submitted a proposal to conduct
seismic exploration in the area, which would require the construction
of five helicopter landing pads, potentially some logging, and the
use of portable drill rigs and explosives at 330 foot intervals
over a 5-mile line bisecting the area. These activities could degrade
wildlife habitat and the recreation experience of visitors. While
the Forest Service has temporarily delayed a decision on the project,
it could still approve it shortly.
More frightening, oil development - with networks of roads, huge
cleared areas for drill pads, venting wells, and a maze of industrial
facilities - could follow exploration. Industry would not likely
target this area for expensive exploration activities unless it
was likely to develop the area. Keeping out exploration now may
save Rock Creek from later energy development that would doom this
wild area and its wild inhabitants.
In short, this is a bad proposal that the Forest Service should
reject.
NO SHORTCUTS ON ENVIRONMENTAL ANALYSIS
If the Forest Service decides to consider this damaging proposal
at all, the agency must not short-circuit citizen involvement and
input by excluding this decision from required environmental review.
Industry has apparently already pressed the Forest Service to approve
the seismic exploration as quickly as possible - by excluding it
from environmental analysis. Given Rock Creek's incredible values,
and strong public support for the area's protection, the Forest
Service must prepare a full environmental impact statement to consider
the potential impacts of multiple helicopter landing
areas, explosives, and drill rigs in important wildlife habitat
and a popular recreation area.
In addition, approval of this helicopter and ground assault could
undermine the ongoing process for updating and revising the current
forest plan. The Rock Creek Roadless Area would be protected as
a recommended wilderness area by three of the potential long-term
forest plans the Forest Service is now analyzing. Clearly, it is
much less likely that Rock Creek will get the protection it deserves
if helicopter landing pads and drilling areas have been built within
its boundaries, and if oil and gas development follows. The time
to protect Rock Creek is now.
SPEAK OUT TO SAVE ROCK CREEK
Please send a letter, fax, email, or make a call to the Forest Service
by APRIL 20 telling the agency to reject this seismic project
and to protect the Rock Creek Roadless Area. In your communication,
please use your own personal experiences and write from your heart.
You may also want to include the following points:
- The wild forests of Rock Creek are far more important for the
wildlife habitat and recreational opportunities than for any oil
or gas that might exist below its surface, and so should be protected
as wilderness for all its natural inhabitants and for the people
of the United States. The Forest Service should flat-out reject
this proposal.
- The oil and gas project would prejudice the forest planning
process now underway by harming the unique natural qualities required
for wilderness and "research natural area" designations.
If the Forest Service intends to consider oil and gas exploration
in Rock Creek, it should not do so until the Forest Plan has been
revised.
- The Forest Service must not push through this oil and gas project
without allowing full public participation, without evaluating
its environmental consequences, and without allowing the public
the right to appeal the decision. The Forest Service must prepare
a full "Environmental Impact Statement" before carrying
out this proposal.
- Remind the Forest Service that the oil industry doesn't own
these wildlands; they are owned by all Americans.
Please mail, fax, email or call directly to:
Supervisor Mary Peterson
Medicine Bow National Forest
2468 Jackson St.
Laramie WY 82070
Email: mhpeterson@fs.fed.us
Telephone: 307-745-2300
Fax: 307-745-2398
Thank you for taking the time to speak out for one of the last
wild forests of the Medicine Bow.
For more information, contact: Erik Molvar (erik@voiceforthewild.org)
or Eric Bonds
(ebonds@voiceforthewild.org)
at Biodiversity Associates (307-342-7978).
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