Vermillion Basin
Northwest Colorado's Natural Treasure At Risk

Western Colorado is rich with rivers, redrock canyons and pinyon-juniper covered mesas -- areas that many Coloradans enjoy for rafting, fishing, hunting, camping and a wealth of other recreational activities. Yet only a fraction of these lower-elevation wildlands -- Colorado's Canyon Country -- have been protected in their wild state as wilderness. A diverse coalition of conservationists and concerned citizens have introduced the Citizens' Wilderness Proposal (CWP), advocating wilderness protection for numerous winding river canyons, plateaus covered in pinyon-juniper forests, and areas of winter range for wildlife across the state.

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 LSRA. 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.

The public comment period for the draft RMP ended on May 16th. Thanks to efforts by members of The Wilderness Society and our partner conservation organizations, the BLM received more than 70,000 comments encouraging them to protect the spectacular wildlands of the Little Snake Resource Area.

Please stay tuned in the coming weeks for further steps you can take to preserve the Little Snake Resource Area.

To view the draft RMP see BLM Colorado.

Moffat County Citizens Group Releases Own Land Management Plan for BLM’s Little Snake Field Office

On April 4, 2007, the Friends of Northwest Colorado, a citizen group hosted out of Moffat County released "A Conservation Vision for the Little Snake Resource Area" calling for greater protective provisions in the Bureau of Land Management’s (BLM) Little Snake Resource Area Draft Resource Management Plan.

To view the publication see "A Conservation Vision for the Little Snake Resource Area".