The future of some of southwestern Colorado’s most rugged terrain will be decided in the new year. On Dec. 30, attorneys for oil and gas developers, conservation groups and federal agencies met in a Denver courtroom to continue a tug-of-war over whether to allow about 140 gas wells to be drilled in the HD Mountains east of Durango.

Five of the conservation groups, including the San Juan Citizens Alliance and The Wilderness Society, are being represented by Earthjustice in the lawsuit, filed in 2008. It asks U.S. District Court Justice Richard Matsch to stop any new drilling while he considers their request to overturn Forest Service approval of the wells.

At the heart of the controversy, says Earthjustice attorney Mike Freeman, are planning documents that outlined protections for the area — protections that the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) and Forest Service now say were not set in stone.

“The Forest Service has promised the public in its forest planning documents that it would protect the HD Mountains and preserve the wildlife habitat that’s there for elk and deer and other species that Coloradans really cherish. It disregarded those commitments when it approved this project.”

The San Juan Basin is already home to tens of thousands of oil and gas wells, according to Freeman. He calls the Forest Service stand on this project “a shell game.”

“When they approved the project, they acknowledged that it was inconsistent with a lot of the commitments they made to protect the HD Mountains. But they said that they would just address those violations and correct them, when they approve individual wells to implement the project.”

Freeman says the area’s combination of rugged terrain and low elevation makes it good wildlife habitat, and it is also part of a larger watershed used by farms and ranches for irrigation. About 20 of the wells are already underway.

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Announcement of a “comprehensive review” of oil and gas leasing on federal lands has aroused curiosity among many in Wyoming. U.S. Interior Secretary Ken Salazar said a month ago that the onshore energy development program will be getting a top-to-bottom examination. Since then, oil and gas trade groups have called the move unfair, and conservation and sporting groups say they’re hoping for a better balance between wildlife protection and energy development.

Wyoming Range outfitter Gary Amerine says he expects the value of land beyond its energy potential — whether that be oil and gas, or wind and solar — will be factored back into land use decisions.

“Balance is the key to this whole process. We can’t just develop, develop, develop and not look at the impacts to other resources.”

Ann Morgan is a former U.S. Bureau of Land Management (BLM) state director who is now vice-president of The Wilderness Society Public Lands Campaign. She says the practice in recent years of relying on the oil and gas industry to recommend which areas should be developed, shows how the leasing program has lost sight of its responsibility to manage land for multiple values.

“The BLM, who are the stewards of these resources for the American people, not the oil and gas industry, should decide when, where and how the oil and gas resource should be developed.”

Oil and gas trade groups have blamed Secretary Salazar for the recent slowdown in production and layoffs, although local economists have pointed out that demand for those resources has dropped because of the recession.

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