By Hal Herring

Conservationist blogger Hal Herring and photographer Kevin Cooley spent three days exploring what's at stake in the current rush to develop the energy resources beneath Colorado's unique Roan Plateau -- some of the best big game hunting and trout fishing in the United States. Here's what they found on day two.

We’d seen the Roan Plateau from the air, and we’d seen it from the roads. Marveled at the monster dropoff and big air at Anvil Point, with the swallows dive-bombing around us with a sound like the air itself ripping open. We’d seen the encircling energy development, the giant well pads cut into the ridgelines on the land owned by Encana and other energy companies. As Grand Junction-based real-estate developer (and Trout Unlimited Director) Mac Cunningham put it, “If we did half this much damage in our business, we’d be shut down. The public outrage would be unbelieveable.”  But now it was time to go wandering and find some fish to catch, deep in the heart of the area that most Coloradoans- and most Americans who know the Roan- want to see protected.

I’d seen the photos of Corey Fisher and Chris Hunt fishing those shadowed cathedrals of moss and rock and clear water for the genetically-pure strain of cutthroats, but looking out across the Roan, it was hard to imagine that those places existed. It looks like great hunting country- there are blue grouse in the snowberry patches at the edge of the aspens, monster muley tracks in the road dust, elk rubbings on the saplings, but no creeks can be seen. It got even harder to imagine as we drove out a ridgeline road, and the land dried out, the snowberry gave way to sage, and the sage to wiry, low-growing potentilla with its yellow flowers and survive-anywhere desert aspect.

We parked at the end of the ridge and looked down, down, 1000 feet or so, where a distant envelope of deep green willow thickets showed at the floor of the canyon. The opposite side of the canyon wall was sage brush falling away to sheer gray clifflines. Ken Neubecker and Chris Hunt were loading daypacks with water and flies and a little food. Mac Cunningham, a veteran of many long downhill scrambles to fish his favorite part of the Black Canyon of the Gunnison, grabbed a fanny pack and set off downhill without fanfare. I followed him, down a path eroded into the red rock, heading for the water they all said was down there somewhere. --Hal Herring

Check out Kevin Cooley's photos from day two of our expedition.

Comments (4)

from squirrelhunter7 wrote 1 year 43 weeks ago

Hahahahahahahahahahahahahahah

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from upacreek333 wrote 1 year 43 weeks ago

There's much at stake on the Roan... the fish are real, the game is real, the threat is real. Keep it like it is.

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from Sage Sam wrote 1 year 43 weeks ago

The fact is that values never come into the discussion for places like Roan Plateau, unless those values involve terms like "cubic feet", "economically recoverable" and "energy independence."

Pro development folks love touting "local control" because they typically operate in extremely conservative areas that are dependent on the economic impacts of resource extraction, but when local communities start standing up and crying for a balanced energy agenda, they use political influence to subvert the notion that they utilize elsewhere. With Roan, almost every single local governmental entity asked for the area to be conserved and for BLM to not lease the top of the plateau. The hope was to still allow access to the natural gas resource through directional drilling. However, that has fallen on deaf ears.

At some point---likely after we've reached the point of no return---we'll realize that wild places are the truly valuable resource. You can't replace places like Roan Plateau, Vermillion Basin, Adobe Town, Otero Mesa, etc. You can take a deliberate approach to energy development that at a minimum saves these places for a "last resort" scenario. However, that just doesn't provide for windfall profits for oil and gas companies.

Right now, Congress is debating whether or not to keep on-shore provisions in the CLEAR Act, provisions like mandatory Best Management Practices, increased reclamation and restoration standards, wildlife sustainability statutes, etc. These are the safeguards we need to protect the public lands of the West (and elsewhere) while allowing for energy development.

We cannot keep sacrificing our heritage and our future for some limited "progress" today, its proven to be an extremely unsound investment strategy.

+1 Good Comment? Yes | No | Report

from Sayfu wrote 1 year 43 weeks ago

My GAWD!! That is the same fish that Deeter held up! The Golden Trout dismissed as a Cutthroat Trout! That fish gets caught just so it can get its picture taken!

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from upacreek333 wrote 1 year 43 weeks ago

There's much at stake on the Roan... the fish are real, the game is real, the threat is real. Keep it like it is.

+2 Good Comment? Yes | No | Report

from Sage Sam wrote 1 year 43 weeks ago

The fact is that values never come into the discussion for places like Roan Plateau, unless those values involve terms like "cubic feet", "economically recoverable" and "energy independence."

Pro development folks love touting "local control" because they typically operate in extremely conservative areas that are dependent on the economic impacts of resource extraction, but when local communities start standing up and crying for a balanced energy agenda, they use political influence to subvert the notion that they utilize elsewhere. With Roan, almost every single local governmental entity asked for the area to be conserved and for BLM to not lease the top of the plateau. The hope was to still allow access to the natural gas resource through directional drilling. However, that has fallen on deaf ears.

At some point---likely after we've reached the point of no return---we'll realize that wild places are the truly valuable resource. You can't replace places like Roan Plateau, Vermillion Basin, Adobe Town, Otero Mesa, etc. You can take a deliberate approach to energy development that at a minimum saves these places for a "last resort" scenario. However, that just doesn't provide for windfall profits for oil and gas companies.

Right now, Congress is debating whether or not to keep on-shore provisions in the CLEAR Act, provisions like mandatory Best Management Practices, increased reclamation and restoration standards, wildlife sustainability statutes, etc. These are the safeguards we need to protect the public lands of the West (and elsewhere) while allowing for energy development.

We cannot keep sacrificing our heritage and our future for some limited "progress" today, its proven to be an extremely unsound investment strategy.

+1 Good Comment? Yes | No | Report

from Sayfu wrote 1 year 43 weeks ago

My GAWD!! That is the same fish that Deeter held up! The Golden Trout dismissed as a Cutthroat Trout! That fish gets caught just so it can get its picture taken!

+1 Good Comment? Yes | No | Report

from squirrelhunter7 wrote 1 year 43 weeks ago

Hahahahahahahahahahahahahahah

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All submitted comments are subject to the rules set forth in our Privacy Policy and Terms of Use.