The federal government plans to lease about 5,000 acres of public land on Garfield County’s Roan Plateau in December for future drilling.
The U.S. Bureau of Land Management announced the decision on Friday after about two months of public engagement. The Roan Plateau parcels are a portion of the government’s broader plan to lease 126,440 acres across the state for drilling.
Those acres will add to the approximately 200,000 that the BLM has already offered up for drilling this year in Colorado. The lease sales are to comply with the 2025 One Big Beautiful Bill Act, which mandates quarterly releases of public lands in Colorado and eight other Western states as part of the Trump Administration’s effort to “unleash” more U.S. oil and gas.
Before being considered for a lease sale, a large majority of the public land being offered was first nominated as a potential drilling site by representatives of the oil and gas industry, according to the bureau. Those nominations went through the National Fluid Lease Sale System and were then reviewed by the government to ensure the nomination complies with existing regulations and mineral rights.
If the BLM finds the tracts of land eligible, the parcels are presented publicly for a fast-track feedback scoping process. The agency initially proposed offering up 126,744 acres across Colorado in December. After 60 days of public scoping, this total was reduced by 304 acres.
The BLM is has opened a “protest period” to gather input on its decision through Nov. 8.
Sparking controversy
The proposal to drill on acres atop and around the 73,600-acre Roan Plateau has received strong pushback from environmental groups across the state. The plateau towers roughly 4,000 feet over Rifle, and boasts roadless woods, waterfalls and meadows supporting key migration points for mule deer, elk and bear populations.
Opponents of the lease sale argue that drilling operations could disrupt the Roan’s thriving ecosystems. Of special concern are its streams, which the state designates as “outstanding waters,” in part for the one-of-a-kind genetically pure population of Colorado River cutthroat trout that lives there.
“By moving forward with these leases, the Trump administration is showing blatant disregard for West Slope communities, businesses, hunters, anglers and conservationists, who have urged the BLM to keep the Roan Plateau off the auction block and instead prioritize this truly unique Colorado landscape,” said Juli Slivka, senior director of policy and programs with Carbondale-based nonprofit Wilderness Workshop, in a news release in August.
State agencies have called for the plateau’s protection, as well, with both Colorado Parks and Wildlife and the Colorado Department of Natural Resources asking the BLM to defer the inclusion of areas on the Roan that overlap with big game habitat.
“It is vital to the state that the BLM considers impacts to wildlife, people and the environment as they continue to develop this proposal,” said Dan Gibbs, state DNR executive director. “Colorado is committed to continuing to be a leading source of energy for the nation while reducing adverse impacts from energy development.”
Nominating oil and gas industry operators like Laramie Energy have not publicly commented on the upcoming lease sale, but groups like the West Slope Colorado Oil & Gas Association routinely point to the region’s natural gas reserves as vital to domestic energy production.
Garfield County commissioners have twice supported the proposed release of Roan land, approving letters to the BLM in September and July asking the agency to move forward with its plans to drill there.
“Oil and gas development is an important part of Garfield County's economy and tax base and supports local governments, special districts, businesses, contractors, employees and royalty owners,” the county’s September letter read. “(The BLM) recognizes that oil and gas exploration, development and production can positively affect local employment, income levels and economic activity.”
The county argued that BLM has built out a “substantial” record of environmental studies showing that drilling on the Roan will not significantly impact the ecosystem.
“This has been planned so many times and studied so many times,” said Commissioner Tom Jankovsky in September.
High-profile history
In 2008, land on the Roan was similarly auctioned off for oil and gas leasing. The BLM offered 55,186 acres despite protests and a lawsuit from community and environmental advocates, including Wilderness Workshop. Those lease sales raised a reported $114 million.
In 2012, a federal district court judge in Denver ordered the BLM to develop a new plan for the parcels, ruling that the agency had failed to evaluate the environmental impacts of drilling and consider if any alternatives could protect the pristine lands.
A settlement between environmental groups and the BLM in 2014 released all but two of the leases on the plateau and reimbursed $47.6 million to the lessee, Bill Barrett Corp.
Two years later, the Obama administration put protections over the plateau, including drilling limitations over the two unreleased leases. Those two leases were eventually abandoned by the lessee, but the land remained on the table for limited drilling. That exact area is now being proposed for renewed drilling.
The BLM cited the Obama-era limitations in its August explanation of the agency’s decision to advance the lease sale plans. Its environmental impact statement argued that the limitations are enough to prevent harm to the ecosystem.
The limitations include mandates that each parcel above the Roan’s rim see no more than seven well pads, and each well pad can disturb no more than 10 acres of land during drilling operations. Infrastructure like pipelines, water lines and utility lines must only run along designated access roads.
Garfield County Commissioner Perry Will noted these limitations before voting in support of the drilling operations in September.
“I’m all about getting the resource out, but also the recreational aspect of that and the wildlife aspect of that is also a resource,” Will said.
In August, Slivka with Wilderness Workshop said in an email to the Aspen Daily News that her organization doesn’t believe those drilling limitations are enough to protect the plateau’s pristine ecosystems — one of Colorado’s “most ecologically rich landscapes.” Oil and gas drilling always poses a risk to the surrounding areas, even with protective stipulations, she said.
She noted that Garfield County already has thousands of oil and gas wells, many of which are on public land.
“Some places simply need to be fully protected from oil and gas development,” Slivka said. “The top of the Roan Plateau is one of those places.”
The acres atop and around the Roan Plateau — as well as a 481-acre parcel 5 miles north of De Beque — are the only parcels on the table for new drilling in the BLM’s Colorado River Valley district, which covers swaths of Pitkin, Garfield and Eagle counties, as well as parts of Rio Blanco, Mesa and Routt counties.
Stretching further west into Garfield County, another 28,745 acres were offered up for drilling earlier this year. A bulk of those parcels surround Highway 139 around the Douglas Pass area.
Closer to Pitkin County, in Gunnison County’s Raggeds Wilderness, the BLM plans to offer up just under 300 acres, 8 miles west of Placita, in December.
Drew Shaw is a Report for America corps member covering public lands and other items of interest in Garfield County for the Aspen Daily News.
