Colorado Environmental Coalition has an office in Craig, allowing CEC to take a lead in defending some of the most unique landscapes and vital wildlife habitat areas in the nation. As part of our ongoing effort to preserve quality lands, CEC and its partners are continuing to deal with significant threats in the region.
Conserving Sage-Grouse by Protecting Sagebrush Habitat
The northwest Colorado population of Sage-Grouse is by far the largest in the state, making up more than 70% of CO's overall population and is actually part of the Wyoming Basin regional population. This population is widely considered the largest and most important to the survival of the species in the eastern half of the Sage-Grouse's range.
Rapid oil and gas expansion and fragmentation of habitat threatens most parts of this population. Population modeling in 2009 projected that the Wyoming Basin population "will decline from 20,980 males attending leks in 2007 to 7,545 males attending leks in 2037 to two in 2107 if this trend continues at the same rate in the future." The same study also employed another model that projected extinction by 2037.
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Oil and Gas Development
The Northwest office is currently responding to the Bureau of Land Management’s Plan for the Little Snake Resource Area. This Plan will dictate how 1.3 million acres of BLM land in Moffat and Routt Counties will be managed for the next 15 to 20 years. The area includes Vermillion Basin, a stunning area of desert canyons, scenic badlands, precious cultural resources, and numerous rare plant communities found nowhere else in Colorado. Vermillion Basin and six other Citizens-Proposed Wilderness Areas will have their management fates decided in this plan.
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Yampa River Project
In Northwest Colorado the Yampa River reins as the largest free-flowing river left in the state, with only two small reservoirs that have virtually no impact on the river flows. The Yampa is known for epic river flows and amazing whitewater recreation opportunities. As demand for water increases in other parts of the state, Front Range water providers have begun to consider the possibility of building a massive pipeline to pump water from Northwest Colorado to meet growing demand on the Front Range. This project would cost a great deal of money to construct and operate, and would have untold costs to the local environment and economies who rely on high river flows to support their recreation-based tourism.
Citizens' Proposed Wilderness Areas
This region is home to seven Citizens' Proposed Wilderness Areas in Moffat and Routt counties, all managed by the BLM's Little Snake Field Office. These areas include critical big game habitat, one of the most spectacular collections of petroglyphs found in Colorado, scenic hiking and camping opportunities, and portions of what is perhaps the most impacted river ecosystem in the state.
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Vermillion Basin
The wild and rugged Vermillion Basin proposed wilderness, in far Northwestern Colorado's Little Snake Resource Area(LSRA), is one such area that is currently at great risk. The Bureau of Land Management's (BLM) recently released its draft Resource Management Plan (RMP) for Vermillion Basin and the Little Snake. The RMP, when finalized, will determine the fate of Northwest Colorado's BLM lands for the next 15 to 20 years. Alarmingly, the proposed plan sidelines protections for the local landscape and lifestyle in favor of high-impact oil and gas development, road building, and off-road vehicle use.
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