Sopris Sun THE
VOLUME 1, NUMBER 20 • JUNE 25, 2009
The fight for Thompson Creek A hiker enjoys the view of the southwest side of Mt. Sopris during a tour of the Thompson Creek roadless area hosted by Wilderness Workshop. Photo by David Frey
Interests unite over Thompson Creek drilling Part 1: What’s at stake By David Frey Sopris Sun Correspondent
EDITOR’S NOTE: This is the first in a two-part series exploring the impact of oil and gas leases in the Thompson Creek roadless area.
T
he rugged terrain west of Carbondale is a place where opposites come together. The Crystal and Colorado River valleys meet in the highlands. Pitkin, Garfield, Delta and Gunnison counties join there. Hunters, ranchers, hikers and crosscountry skiers roam the hillsides. Oil and gas leases underlie it, too, and a growing chorus of critics is voicing concerns that drilling there could upset the balance. “I’d love to see those leases just go away,” said Carbondale rancher Bill Fales, a member of the Thompson Divide Coalition, a diverse group that has formed in hopes that the federal government will ban drilling from the area. “I just think there are too many other incredible values that this area provides,” Fales said. “It supports all the ranches that are left in this valley. I’m pretty sure it would impact the wildlife significantly and I’m scared about the water. I think those values, as well as just the availability for people to get out of town and get up on the forest in 10 minutes and have some solitude and quiet, I think all those benefits are just much more valuable to society, to the country, than the little bit of gas we could get out of there. I just think these other
values outweigh the benefit we could get out of a little gas.” The Thompson Divide Coalition formed last fall when various interests, brought to the table by Carbondale’s Wilderness Workshop, began to look for ways to protect the area surrounding Thompson Creek and Divide Creek from gas drilling. About 20 people formed the group, including representatives of the North Thompson Cattlemen’s Association, Trout Unlimited, the Mount Sopris Nordic Council, the Colorado Mountain Club and area landowners. They’re hoping for some kind of protections — probably a congressional mandate — that would do away with future leases. The group is championing some 211,000 acres of rugged country that spreads west from Carbondale to the mountains south of Silt in a sweeping landscape invisible from the windshields of highway motorists. Only a handful of wells have been drilled there, but 81 leases have been claimed by about 15 gas companies. Critics fear that could open up about half the land to drilling. “Oil and gas development is so heavily intrusive,” said coalition member Jock Jacober, a resident of Four Mile Road above Glen-
wood Springs, an area that could be affected by industry trucks. “Even if you come and you go and you ‘reclaim,’ the impacts to the area are permanent, and that is the unfortunate problem.”
Key habitat
The Thompson Creek area lacks the stunning vistas of high-alpine wilderness, but supporters see it as a critical portion of the White River National Forest. It includes old-growth timber. Striking rock fins likened to the Garden of the Gods tower out of the cliffs above the creek. The aspen-covered hillsides are part of what is considered the largest aspen forest in the country. It is home to lynx, bear, moose, deer and elk. Conservationists say the animals rely on the landscape to roam between the two river valleys. Half the land lies in nine inventoried roadless areas – the largest contiguous spread of roadless land in Colorado. Many of the gas leases are within those areas. “It’s a key migration corridor between the main stem of the Rockies and the Grand and Battlement mesas,” said Peter Hart, conser-
CONCERNS page 7