Stop oil and gas drilling on Routt National Forest
Expressions of Interest on the Routt National Forest
U.S. Forest Service· Routt National Forest, Hahns Peak-Bears Ears Ranger DistrictU.S. Forest Service project page ↗
Forest ServiceWe track this on the agency’s own system of record, where most on-the-ground decisions live.
The groups on this fight
4 groups work Colorado
By footprint, from the same match the STAND matchmaker runs; none is linked to this decision in our record yet. Give straight to them; nothing routes through us.
- Center for Biological Diversity
Works Colorado: led the coalition suit against the Uinta Basin Railway, whose oil trains would run the river corridors below the monument.
- Rocky Mountain Wild
Works Colorado: joined the formal challenge to the January 2026 replacement lease sale and previously sued BLM over the Roan Plateau leases.
- San Juan Citizens Alliance
Works Colorado: shaped the 2010 management plan, has fought oil and gas leasing decisions inside the monument for two decades, mobilized against the 2017 monument review, and states it continues to defend CANM..
- WildEarth Guardians
Works Colorado: named petitioner against the Uinta Basin Railway over habitat destruction in the basin.
Every group above is on STAND for Public Lands, with its court record, its filings and who backs it.
Ten parcels of Routt National Forest could be handed over for oil and gas extraction.
What’s at risk
Protected National Forest land in the Hahns Peak-Bears Ears District faces fossil fuel drilling if these parcels are leased to the BLM. This is an early decision point, and commenting now is the only way to keep a voice in the process.
If this goes through
The Forest Service opens ten parcels to oil and gas leasing, exploration, and development, setting these public lands on a path toward permanent industrial extraction.
Our plain-English read of the official notice ↗. Check it against the agency’s own words below.
3 holes in the agency’s own analysis
What the public could have raised, from the agency’s own document
- I oppose this action as proposed, and I ask the agency to weigh the specific harms below.
- I oppose leasing any of the ten parcels on the Hahns Peak-Bears Ears Ranger District to the BLM for oil and gas exploration and development.
- Do not open protected Routt National Forest lands to fossil fuel extraction by transferring these parcels to BLM for potential lease sales.
- This early-stage review sets the path for drilling on National Forest land, and I am submitting comments now to preserve my standing in any future administrative review.
- Say something only you can say. The law requires the agency to consider and respond to substantive comments, and specifics are what make a comment substantive.
In the agency’s own words
The Medicine Bow-Routt National Forest has received Expressions of Interest on the HPBE District to lease ten parcels to the BLM for a potential future oil and gas lease sale and subsequent exploration and development.
The reporting behind this
From More Than Just ParksAfter more than a decade chasing peak color across America, we built the foliage map we always wanted.
It’s referred to as Unit 346 in the Twin Mountain II Timber Sale. On the ground, it’s some of the most spectacular old growth we’ve ever witnessed, and it’s marked for clearcutting.
To document and do our part to save America’s greatest old growth forest
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