Roan Plateau

January 21, 2005

Town Clerk
Town of Rifle
P.O. Box 1908
Rifle, CO   81650

Re: RMP and DEIS for Roan Plateau Planning Area

Dear Wanda:

I decided it would be best for me not to drive from Centennial to attend your January 12th town meeting on the subject plan because of weather and road conditions.  However, please be assured that the Colorado Wildlife Federation is very interested in this planning effort.  We have thousands of members statewide and about a 100 in your area.

Like many folks in your community, the Colorado Wildlife Federation highly values the habitats, scenery, and hunting and other recreational opportunities provided on the top of Roan Plateau.  We understand the need to develop new energy sources, but we do not think that important fish and wildlife resources need to be threatened to satisfy that need.

We empathize with the several citizens that expressed serious concerns at the recent meeting in Glenwood Springs.  They thought they had reached an agreement through their participation in the scoping process that BLM would include an alternative of no drilling on top of the Plateau in the DEIS.  However, the DEIS does not include such an alternative.  Instead, BLM said that the elements of such an alternative were scattered throughout the document.  They also said the preferred alternative was not cast in stone.  Rather, they wanted input from the public on what it wanted to see in a preferred alternative.  The problem is that the complex RMP amendment and DEIS document has been difficult to read and comprehend.  Regardless, we are developing our comments and plan to have them on our WEB site (www.coloradowildlife.org) by the middle of February. 

At this point, our main concerns are for protection of stream habitat for the essentially pure strains of the vulnerable Colorado River cutthroat trout and the adjacent tributaries and surrounding watersheds; plants that are candidates for listing under the Endangered Species Act; species listed as sensitive by BLM; and deer and elk habitat, including migration, seclusion, and wintering habitat below the rim.  Therefore, we support the concepts presented in the Roan Plateau Community Alternative that has been presented by the Colorado Mountain Club and others.   We also want specific assurances that all disturbed areas will be fully reclaimed with localized native plant species, and weeds will be controlled until those plantings are well established. 

Please share these comments with the Town Council.  If any one has questions, they may contact me at (303) 627-0997 or wetlandsandwater@comcast.net.

Thank you for the opportunity to share our thoughts with you.

Dennis Buechler

Emeritus Board Member and Co-chair of Issues and Advocacy Committee
Colorado Wildlife Federation