Southern Utah Wilderness Alliance * The Wilderness Society

For Immediate Release: September 8, 2004

Utah BLM Auctions Off 360,000 Acres of Public Land to Oil and Gas Industry
Sale includes 40,000 acres of legislatively proposed wilderness

Contacts:
Liz Thomas, SUWA 435.259.5440
Heidi McIntosh, SUWA 801.486.3161
Suzanne Jones, TWS 303.650.5818

Moab, UT (September 8, 2004) Although the lead story on the Department of the Interior’s website reads "DOI Commemorates 40th Anniversary of Wilderness Act," the Bureau of Land Management (an agency within the DOI) today auctioned off to the oil and gas industry nearly 40,000 acres of legislatively proposed wilderness in Utah. The total public land sale of 360,000 acres was the largest oil and gas lease sale since the Utah and Colorado BLM began breaking with tradition by auctioning off these lands in Utah and Colorado, a direct result of a secret deal cut in April 2003 between Interior Secretary Gale Norton and former Utah Governor (now EPA Administrator) Mike Leavitt that prohibited BLM from protecting potential wilderness.

"This sale is evidence that the Interior Department is targeting Utah’s most spectacular lands for oil and gas leasing and development," said Liz Thomas of the Southern Utah Wilderness Alliance. "Instead of protecting these lands for future generations, they will be lost for what amounts to just a drop in the overall oil and gas bucket." According to United States Geological Survey (USGS) data, the amount of undiscovered oil under Utah’s proposed wilderness would serve the country for four days and the undiscovered gas less than four weeks.

Included in today’s sale are 25,000 acres that the BLM declared to have "wilderness characteristics" during its 1999 re-inventory of Utah public lands. These lands are located in Bull Canyon in the Dinosaur area, Coal and Floy canyons along the southern flanks of the Book Cliffs in eastern Utah, and Upper Desolation Canyon along the Green River. In its 1999 inventory of Utah’s wild lands, the BLM called Desolation Canyon "…a place where a visitor can experience true solitude -- where the forces of nature continue to shape the colorful, rugged landscape."

"Places like Desolation Canyon are national treasures and should be protected for our children, not handed over to the oil and gas industry," said The Wilderness Society’s Suzanne Jones. "It simply doesn’t make sense for the administration to target our last top-notch natural areas, places that are important for recreation, wildlife, and clean water."

Eighty-three members of Congress recently asked BLM to not offer leases to the oil and gas industry in areas that are proposed for wilderness in Utah and Colorado. Today’s sale was formally protested by the Southern Utah Wilderness Alliance, Natural Resources Defense Council, The Wilderness Society, The Grand Canyon Trust, the Utah Chapter of the Sierra Club, and Living Rivers, along with Rep. Maurice Hinchey (D-NY). The Colorado Plateau River Guides, National Outdoor Leadership School (NOLS), and the Outdoor Industry Association protested the sale of lease parcels located along the Green River in the upper Desolation Canyon area in Utah.