Office of the Secretary

For Immediate Release: November 15, 2000

Contact: John Wright: 202/208-6416

Secretary Babbitt Commits Interior Department to
Protecting Wyoming's Red Desert

During a visit to the Red Desert of Wyoming on Wednesday, November 15, 2000, Secretary of the Interior Bruce Babbitt announced that the Department of the Interior would prepare a supplemental draft environmental impact statement for a Bureau of Land Management (BLM) plan being prepared for the Jack Morrow Hills area. The planning area includes the Great Divide Basin and a portion of the Red Desert of Wyoming.

The new document will include a new "preferred alternative" that focuses on the protection of the area's outstanding wildlife, cultural, and aesthetic resources. The preferred alternative in the current draft EIS proposes some protection for these resources, but allows concurrent oil and gas development on some of the same lands where these resources occur. The BLM received more than 12,000 public comments, and the vast majority of these comments supported a conservation alternative.

"I am greatly impressed by the unique and outstanding natural resources contained in the planning area, and by the outpouring of public support for protecting these resources," said Babbitt. "To the extent that oil and gas development is compatible with protecting these resources we should allow that development to continue. And we will, of course, protect valid existing rights. But we cannot allow the presence of finite mineral resources to deprive future generations of the natural and aesthetic wonders of the Great Divide Basin."

The planning area contains one of the largest and healthiest big game populations in the lower 48 states. Likewise, the area contains one of the most diverse and numerous concentrations of raptors anywhere in our nation. Seven wilderness study areas are contained in the planning area, and are treasured for their aesthetic beauty and the recreational opportunities they afford.

"While I have directed that the supplemental draft EIS should include a conservation alternative as the preferred alternative," noted the Secretary, "the final decision as to how to protect this special area will be made by the next Administration, and perhaps by some future Congress. Nonetheless, it is my responsibility to place the BLM on a track that helps to insure the protection of the outstanding resources of this area after a full opportunity for the public participation."

The significant cultural resources of the area, including remnants of the Oregon and Mormon Pioneer trails and the mining camps of South Pass, add to the area's allure. In 1935, former Wyoming Governor Leslie Miller recommended this area as the Great Divide Basin National Park. Others, like Tom Bell, founder of the High Country News, have worked hard for many years to promote special protection for this area.

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