OPINION: An Outing in Adobe Town, a Threatened Landscape

OPINION: An Outing in Adobe Town, a Threatened Landscape

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The following was written and submitted by Shaleas Harrison, Community Organizer for the Wyoming Wilderness Association.
[/vc_column_text][vc_column_text]Twenty Wyoming citizens recently attended an outing at Skull Rim in the Adobe Town
Wilderness Study Area (WSA) with UW retired Professors Dennis Knight and Steve Buskirk.

People traveled from all over the state to learn about plant adaptations, local mammals, and the geology of Adobe Town. The gathering was organized by the Wyoming Wilderness Association to boost awareness of Adobe Town and the extensive oil and gas leasing proposed for the area in the BLM’s 4th quarter oil and gas lease sale.

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[/vc_column_text][vc_single_image image=”199719″ img_size=”large” alignment=”center”][vc_column_text]During the outing, Dennis Knight, author of Mountains and Plains: the Ecology of Wyoming
Landscapes, spoke about coppice dunes, the different species of sagebrush, and desert plant adaptions.

Steve Buskirk, author of Wild Mammals of Wyoming and Yellowstone National Park, introduced participants to rare mammals such as the pigmy rabbit and the ringtail, which are sometimes found in southwest Wyoming.[/vc_column_text][vc_single_image image=”199720″ img_size=”large” alignment=”center”][vc_single_image image=”199729″ img_size=”large” alignment=”center”][vc_column_text]Rare species, badland features, fossils, and surrounding vistas make Adobe Town a truly special place. Surrounding the Adobe Town WSA are other lands with wilderness characteristics (LWCs), a designation given to ecologically important lands that have outstanding opportunities for solitude and primitive recreation.[/vc_column_text][vc_column_text]Adobe Town has also garnered significant citizen support for Wilderness designation by
Congress. It was part of the 2011 Citizen Wilderness Proposal for BLM Lands in Wyoming. This proposal had the support of thousands of Wyoming citizens and many conservation groups across the state.[/vc_column_text][vc_single_image image=”199718″ img_size=”large” alignment=”center”][vc_column_text]Adobe Town is rich in oil and gas resources, making the region one of the most threatened
landscapes in Wyoming. The BLM is proposing to lease several parcels north and south of Skull Rim and west of Adobe Town Rim in the 4th quarter lease sale. The leases actually touch the boundary of the WSA. The leases also occur in LWCs, which means they are a threat to the wilderness quality of this landscape as a whole.

Adobe Town is managed by the BLM Rawlins and Rock Springs Field Office, neither of which
have plans to protect the LWCs that surround the Adobe Town WSA. If the leases within the LWCs are developed, the wildness of this landscape, badland formations, and important cultural resources could be destroyed.”

[/vc_column_text][vc_single_image image=”199721″ img_size=”large” alignment=”center”][vc_column_text]In the past, leasing in the Rock Springs Field Office has been deferred because the Resource Management Plan (RMP) is being revised. However, the Department of Interior released new guidance for oil and gas leasing. The new policy, Instruction Memorandum 2018-034, will streamline the leasing process in western states, resulting in more leases.

The policy does not require the BLM to defer leasing when a RMP amendment or revision is still underway. This is particularly problematic for the Rock Springs Field Office, where most of the 4th quarter leases will be for sale and where the RMP is still not complete. So far, nearly 700,000 acres have been proposed for leasing. If the leases are sold, the public loses the ability to decide which areas will be leased in the new management plan.[/vc_column_text][vc_single_image image=”199727″ img_size=”large” alignment=”center”][vc_column_text]The BLM is accepting lease nominations through June 1. After that, an assessment will be made of the parcels that are for sale. It is up to the public to petition state leaders to ask for certain areas to remain off limits.

The size of the lease sale is three and half times larger than any other quarterly sale this year. The sale has even caught the attention of local leaders. The Sweetwater County Commissioners sent a letter in April requesting that BLM defer leasing in Greater Little Mountain and within the mule deer migration corridor.[/vc_column_text][vc_single_image image=”199726″ img_size=”large” alignment=”center”][vc_single_image image=”199725″ img_size=”large” alignment=”center”][vc_column_text]The BLM needs to respect and honor the voices of Wyoming citizens and reduce the size and scope of this lease sale, especially around Adobe Town. Until leasing is deferred around Adobe Town, the future of this extraordinary landscape remains at risk.

Shaleas Harrison, Community Organizer for the Wyoming Wilderness Association[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row]