Sign March 2026 Lease Sale EA letter - Citizens for a Healthy Community

Please check the box below if you agree to the following comments. A check in the box is required in order to submit the form to the BLM.

Dear State Director Vilsack,

I am writing in response to the Environmental Assessment comment period to request that you withdraw parcels 6157 and 6169 in the Uncompahgre Field Office from the proposed March 2026 Colorado oil and gas lease sale.

These parcels are sensitively located within the Hubbard Creek and East Muddy Creek Watersheds, which provide critical water resources to our community and support the wildlife and landscapes that we treasure. Parcel 6157 is within state designated High Priority Habitat for Big Game. There are already nearly 70,000 acres leased to the oil and gas industry in the upper North Fork Valley including these sensitive areas, and only about 30% are developed and actively producing.

There is no reason to lease these two new parcels and add additional stress to our wildlife, water resources and climate. These parcels were deferred in the December 2018 lease sale.

The North Fork Valley is still an inappropriate place for oil and gas development, and degradation of our public lands is only getting worse with aridification, extreme weather, habitat fragmentation, collapsing roads and geological instability. BLM has an obligation to prevent permanent impairment and undue and unnecessary degradation of its lands and resources. There is no need to lease these lands and risk further degradation or permanent impairment when so much already leased acreage remains undeveloped. It is also unnecessary to lease these lands when no market demand for natural gas has been demonstrated beyond what is already leased, permitted and undeveloped. In addition, only $123,398 in federal revenue is estimated as compared to potentially millions of dollars in long-term environmental, and public health and safety harm.

For over a decade, the North Fork Valley community has been fiercely opposed to new leasing due to the rarity of its ecosystem, treasured recreational areas, prime hunting and fishing locations, risk to the state’s largest concentration of organic farms, disproportionate level of local warming, and the geologic instability. Our public lands, farms, vineyards, and orchards attract visitors from around the globe. The wildlands, streams, and rivers around us attract hunters, anglers, and recreationists. The Wilderness Society’s Too Wild To Drill report and Wilderness Workshop’s 2025 Wild for Good report illustrates why the North Fork Valley deserves special management treatment and protection from any more oil and gas leasing and development.

Please use your discretion to withdraw the two parcels offered in the Uncompahgre Field Office from the Proposed March 2026 Lease Sale. At a minimum these parcels should be deferred until a decision is issued on the Uncompahgre Resource Management Amendment.

Respectfully,

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SIGN THIS LETTER

TO PROTECT THE NORTH FORK VALLEY

The North Fork Valley watersheds are STILL inappropriate for oil and gas leasing and development.

Your Voice Is Needed loud and clear on the proposed March 2026 Colorado Oil and Gas Lease Sale, which includes 1,634 acres in the Hubbard Creek and East Muddy Creek watersheds.

Comments Due 12pm, Friday, December 12, 2025

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