en.Wedoany.com Reported - The U.S. Bureau of Land Management (BLM) will hold a lease sale on June 16, offering approximately 156,000 acres of federal public land in northwestern Colorado to oil and gas companies, marking the largest land lease in the state's modern history.
The sale encompasses over 100 parcels located in corridors used by the largest elk herd in the United States, as well as pronghorn and mule deer for migration, foraging, and winter habitat, with some extending into southern Wyoming. Most parcels are in Moffat County, which bills itself as the "World Elk Hunting Capital," where recreational hunting plays a critical role in the local economy.
About two-thirds of the parcels lie south of Dinosaur National Monument, one of over 40 certified International Dark Sky Places in the U.S., known for its exceptionally dark night skies. Moffat County tourism officials report that inquiries have dropped by more than half this spring, fearing that the bright lights and truck traffic associated with fossil fuel extraction could jeopardize this hard-won certification. "Things like this could jeopardize that status," said Tom Kleinschnitz, the county's tourism director. "In the long run, I think it's important to keep these areas as pristine as possible."
This lease sale contradicts the BLM's established strategy for Dinosaur National Monument and the 2024 revision of the Northwestern Colorado Regional Plan, which strengthened habitat protections for ungulates such as elk and deer, as well as the endangered Gunnison sage-grouse.
A 2,360-row spreadsheet compiled by the nonprofit Rocky Mountain Wild lists 17 rare plants and endangered species that could be threatened by fossil fuel exploration and extraction, including the black-footed ferret, wolverine, boreal toad, Colorado pikeminnow, and threatened plants such as the Colorado hookless cactus and Parachute penstemon. The sale also involves habitats of species listed as special concern by state wildlife officials, including the Columbian sharp-tailed grouse, greater sage-grouse, ferruginous hawk, and swift fox.
The June sale is one of four large lease sales in Colorado since Congress passed and President Donald Trump signed a bill in 2025 containing provisions encouraging drilling on federal public lands. This contrasts with the leasing pattern under President Joe Biden's administration, which held only six sales in Colorado over four years, offering no more than a few hundred acres.
The 2025 H.R. 1 legislation prioritizes fossil fuel extraction over other uses such as recreation and conservation, requiring federal officials to hold at least four lease sales each fiscal year in Alaska, Colorado, Montana, New Mexico, Nevada, North Dakota, Oklahoma, Utah, and Wyoming. It shortens public comment periods and reduces land managers' discretion over whether to offer land for leasing. The law also lowers oil and gas royalty rates, making it cheaper to extract fossil fuels on public lands while reducing the taxpayer's share of profits from natural resources. According to an analysis by the nonpartisan watchdog group Taxpayers for Common Sense, Colorado alone could lose $148 million in revenue from future production on approximately 81,000 acres sold in 2026.
Bipartisan polling by Colorado College's State of the Rockies Project shows that a majority of voters in eight western states want their congressional representatives to prioritize public land conservation over energy development.
According to fiscal year 2025 statistics on the BLM website, about 21 million acres of public land under the agency's oversight are leased for oil and gas development, but only 12 million acres are actually in production. Conservation groups worry that during the ten-year lease terms held by energy companies, these parcels cannot legally be used for other purposes such as sensitive habitat protection, wilderness characteristics, or recreation.
"People need to understand the long-term impacts of rushing to lease so much public land," said Peter Hart, legal director of the conservation group Wilderness Workshop. "Once these leases are issued, they're very hard to get rid of—they stay on the land for a long time, even if not developed."
In response to a 106-page comment letter submitted on March 13 by 18 organizations including Wilderness Workshop, the BLM stated in an environmental assessment that it would conduct additional site-specific analyses for each sold parcel if companies apply for drilling permits. In its 646-page report, the agency noted that risks could be mitigated through reviews of drilling and completion plans for proposed wells by the BLM and Colorado's Energy and Carbon Management Commission.
Federal officials removed four parcels and reduced one, totaling about 4,800 acres, from the sale based on a decision by the Interior Board of Land Appeals. These parcels included habitats for greater sage-grouse and Columbian sharp-tailed grouse, as well as high-priority big game habitat. However, many other parcels with similar characteristics remain in the sale. The environmental assessment states that agency officials will impose stipulations on leases for sensitive parcels to protect animals, plants, cultural resources, and fish.
Conservation groups argue that federal land managers have significantly less leeway to adjust operation locations, add stipulations, or cancel leases during the permitting phase, and cannot remove parcels previously deferred due to sensitive species habitat. Alison Gallensky, a conservation geographer at Rocky Mountain Wild, said that during the first Trump administration, one sale was initially proposed on a much larger scale than this one, and the state BLM used its discretion to defer parcels unsuitable due to greater sage-grouse conflicts. "Now, they're forced to offer a sale much larger than what that one ended up being," she said.
Gallensky noted that greater sage-grouse are extremely sensitive to oil and gas infrastructure; even if equipment is moved away, they instinctively sense that winged predators might perch on such structures, affecting breeding. Stipulations designed to protect them, such as requiring well pads to be set back from nesting sites, rely on operator compliance, but the federal government does not always have enough staff to monitor.
The June sale continues a trend that began last year of offering public lands in remote areas of the state to energy companies. In September 2025, the agency leased parcels near Aurora Reservoir, adjacent to a densely populated Denver suburb, for about $5.6 million as part of the Lowry Ranch Comprehensive Area Plan, which includes over 150 wells approved by state regulators but strongly opposed by residents.
The agency received over 340 individual comments on the June sale, many urging it not to lease similar parcels near the reservoir. Residents and conservation groups argue that emissions from oil and gas development on this land would worsen pollution in areas already failing to meet federal air quality standards. In its environmental analysis, the agency estimated that some parcels in Weld County could lead to up to 150 wells, with conservation groups saying emissions would exacerbate smog in areas already out of compliance with national standards. Multiple organizations wrote in their March 13 comment letter that the BLM's suggestion that the lease sale "would not result in increased emissions" was "entirely unfounded." Federal officials responded that if companies apply for drilling permits, the agency would conduct a "project-specific emissions inventory" analysis, including details such as the number of proposed wells, timelines, and equipment lists.
In Moffat County on the western slope of the Rockies, where most June lease parcels are concentrated, community representatives note the need to balance environmental concerns with economic realities: rising food and gas prices hit rural areas hard. Tourism director Kleinschnitz said that in this sparsely populated region, where 80% of voters cast ballots for Trump in 2024, many equipment suppliers have agricultural operations, some residents partially rely on drilling royalties to make ends meet, and hunting is vital for retaining population. "Hunting is very important for keeping people on the land," he said. "Some of them get royalties from oil and gas and benefit greatly from it."
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