Just northwest of Rifle, the Roan Plateau rises 3,000 feet above the Colorado River Valley, a towering wall of sandstone cliffs.
Once airborne, the mesa unfolds below as a patchwork of waterfalls and streams winding through aspen groves, juniper woodlands, Douglas fir and Gambel oak. The surrounding landscape is dotted with roads and oil and gas well pads.
It’s a view that highlights the long-standing tension between conservation and energy development on the plateau — a fight that has been reignited as the Bureau of Land Management considers several new oil and gas leases atop the Roan in its upcoming sale in December. On Wednesday, July 8, conservation advocacy nonprofit EcoFlight gave several organizations and individuals a chance to see the view from aboard a six-seat Cessna airplane.
“Roan is a small island of undisturbed habitat and landscape in a sea of development,” said Brien Webster, the public lands campaign manager for Conservation Colorado. “There’s plenty of development; we want to make sure there’s plenty left for wildlife, habitat, recreation, fish and ecological value. … We want future generations to be shaped by these kinds of opportunities, to have the opportunity to see wildlife that are unique to a landscape, in a place that is unfragmented and fairly pristine.”
Nancy Johnston-Bramlett, an operations manager with Colorado Trout Unlimited, said it was surprising to see how the existing oil and gas development has impacted the landscape west of the plateau, which is predominantly private land owned by companies.
“From the ground, you think, ‘Well, those roads, those (well) pads, there’ll be trees around them. It won’t be that bad,’” she said. “But when you’re in the air, you see just how denuded the landscape has become in and out of those pads. And the actual pads are huge, flat and there is not a speck of growth or goodness except for the mineral extraction that’s happening there.”
The Roan Plateau is “a very mineral-rich plateau and basin,” owing back to its history as an ancient sea, said Jane Pargiter, the executive director of EcoFlight.
“It’s very wealthy in terms of these resources. So as long as we’re all using oil and gas, we can’t say they shouldn’t (drill) anywhere,” Pargiter said. “But the top of the Roan is spectacular, and it has so many values that are intrinsic to it, from the biodiversity to being this incredible wildlife habitat for mule deer and elk.”
The BLM first proposed leasing on the 73,600-acre Roan Plateau in 2007 — spurring thousands of protests and a lawsuit that took until 2014 to settle, resulting in the cancellation of 17 leases on the plateau.
Now, nearly 5,000 acres of land atop the plateau’s predominantly untouched landscape could be leased in the BLM’s December sale, as President Donald Trump’s administration ushers in a new era of energy development on the federal lands. Trump has said the goal of his executive order to “unleash American energy” is to achieve energy independence, increase affordability and provide jobs by reducing red tape and reopening public lands for development.
“For those of us that live out here in these places, we want public lands that continue to provide us solace, that continue to provide us that economic benefit, that continue to support wildlife management, that have responsible energy development, and that are part of a process that’s responsive, responsible and sustainable — because otherwise we lose it all,” Webster said. “This isn’t market-driven. This isn’t informed by local resource experts. This is a top-down approach that’s completely out of touch with the realities on the ground and with the interests of local communities.”
The BLM’s fourth quarter lease sale in 2026 is scheduled for December, with the initial 30-day public scoping period ending July 7. Additional opportunities to comment will come following the release of a draft environmental impact statement and during a formal protest period. In total, 114 parcels covering 126,744 acres in Garfield, Rio Blanco, Gunnison, Weld, Arapahoe, Archuleta, La Plata and Las Animas counties are being considered for the sale. Four of the parcels are located on the plateau, with an additional two parcels being offered nearby.
The Roan parcels were included in the sale because they were nominated through an expression of interest on the National Fluid Lease Sale System website, according to Levi Spellman, a spokesperson for the Bureau of Land Management. Interest in the six parcels on or near the plateau was submitted by Elevation Resources, LLC, a Denver-based oil and gas brokerage firm.
“They are available for consideration because they are open for fluid mineral leasing under the applicable resource management plan and all applicable legal settlements,” Spellman added.
A history of battles on the plateau
Advocates are pushing back against Roan Plateau’s inclusion in the fourth-quarter auction, arguing it goes against public support for protecting the plateau’s environmental values and previous fights over protections for the landscape.
“I can’t believe they’re doing this again,” said Ken Neubecker, with the Roaring Fork and Colorado River valley chapters of Trout Unlimited.
In 2007, when the BLM first proposed leasing all available oil and gas acreage on the plateau, protests poured in. The federal agency went forward with the lease sale, auctioning over 55,000 acres in 2008, only to be sued by a group of environmental advocacy organizations, including Colorado Trout Unlimited, Rocky Mountain Wild, the Sierra Club, Wilderness Workshop and a few others.
The basis of the groups’ argument then — and now — is that oil and gas development on the plateau would impact watersheds that support a rare, genetically pure trout species, wildlife habitat that’s crucial to elk, mule deer and greater sage grouse and well-established hunting, fishing and backcountry recreation. The six parcels up for consideration in December’s lease directly cut through greater sage grouse leks, or breeding grounds, as well as migration corridors and winter, summer and breeding habitat for elk and mule deer.
Dean Riggs, a former Parks and Wildlife biologist, said that species like greater sage grouse “don’t move well on the landscape” and any disturbance of the leks will cause them to “blink out” and cease to exist.
As for the “genetically unique” cutthroat that live in the plateau’s highest streams: “If you lose those, the chance of getting them back is almost non-existent,” Riggs added.
While migratory species like deer and elk could move, not only are there few, if any, other quality habitats remaining, but any disturbance can impact their health.
“When you fragment these landscapes, wildlife moves through it quicker. They come across more obstacles. Their health becomes diminished and populations decline,” Webster said.
In 2012, a Denver judge ruled in favor of the environmental groups, deeming that the BLM’s management plan that allowed drilling on the plateau was deficient. Two years later, the parties settled, and the BLM canceled 17 of the 19 leases on the plateau. The remaining two leases were relinquished in 2024. The agency was required to refund around $47.6 million to the leaseholder, Bill Barrett Corp., and prepare a new, long-term environmental impact assessment for the area.
That plan was released in 2016 and barred 90% of the public land on the plateau from future oil and gas leasing. Then-BLM Director Neil Kornze, who led the federal agency from March 2013 to January 2017, said the decision honored Colorado’s connection to public lands “by protecting some of Colorado’s wildest places and providing greater certainty for oil and gas operators on the Western Slope.”
Now, the pressure to increase drilling by the current presidential administration is reopening these wounds.
A new era of energy development on public land
The Bureau of Land Management is required to hold quarterly oil and gas lease sales when eligible lands are available under a 1920 legislative mandate. While the Biden administration pulled away from fossil fuel development amid concerns about how BLM’s oil and gas development was negatively impacting the environment and climate, the Trump administration has leaned back in, making good on his campaign promise to “drill, baby, drill.”
Since the president’s day one executive order, policy changes have included reducing royalty rates and other changes meant to expand and speed up oil and gas leasing on public lands in the One Big Beautiful Bill Act. The administration has also recently proposed changes that the BLM said are intended to cut through red tape and spur increased development. The latter includes proposals to shorten public comment periods, reduce bonding requirements, repeal a Biden-era waste minimization rule and more.
For many of the environmental advocates, these changes are concerning, not only because they are rapidly increasing the rate at which oil and gas leases are issued, but also because they are drastically diminishing opportunities for public input in the process.
“These are our public lands. Our voice should be central in that process,” Webster said. “And when you create a rapid, expedited process where you’re pushing as many lease sales through as possible, you’re not able to be responsive to the public.”
Spellman said on behalf of BLM that “The One Big Beautiful Bill Act sets timetables for processing (expression of interests), requires quarterly lease sales, and directs that any stipulations and mitigations to be applied must exist in the applicable resource management plan. However, the One Big Beautiful Bill Act does not impact the BLM’s consideration of public input throughout the lease sale process.”
With this increased federal interest, the BLM in Colorado has held two quarterly lease sales this year, resulting in the sale of 215 parcels spanning 176,705 acres for $43.1 million. Proceeds from the sales are split between the federal and Colorado state governments. The BLM’s third-quarter sale will include 31 parcels covering 17,250 acres. In total, BLM has offered 403 parcels in Colorado this year, a large jump from 290 leased in the previous seven years.
The risk, advocates argue, is that leasing at this pace will lead to the loss of certain things that can never be restored.
“Even if these parcels aren’t drilled immediately, the simple act of issuing a lease is impactful,” Webster said. “A lease grants a valid and existing right that lasts for at least 10 years … Leasing effectively removes these landscapes from the equation when it comes to shaping more durable and balanced conservation outcomes for our public lands, legally preventing us from prioritizing them for wildlife habitat, our outdoor recreation economy or our community interests.”
The parcels atop the Roan Plateau are far from the only ones facing pushback in Colorado. Colorado Parks and Wildlife and multiple environmental groups protested parcels included in the second-quarter sale held in June. Parks and Wildlife specifically had concerns about how several parcels overlapped with existing conservation easements and could have negative consequences for wildlife and habitat.
The BLM denied these protests before the sale, arguing that the subsurface mineral rights did not compete with conservation easements above ground. The agency also argues that leasing itself does not authorize drilling, and that further environmental review would take place as companies apply for those permits.
In Routt County, commissioners recently raised concerns about a proposed federal oil and gas lease sale covering nearly 14,000 acres of national forest land north of Hayden.
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