Thompson Divide debate

A key dispute within the dispute over proposed oil and gas development in the Thompson Divide area involves dozens of leases issued in national forest roadless areas there in 2003.  That was two years after President Bill Clinton, in one of his final acts as president, declared a national forest rule to protect roadless areas from development. Such leases in the Thompson Divide area and elsewhere have gained the nickname of “gap” leases because they were issued at a time when the legal status of the national roadless rule was in question because of prior court rulings later being upheld. Gary Osier, a former Forest Service employee who served as forest minerals specialist for the White River National Forest, said energy companies had been “badgering him to death” during the 1990s to make some of the areas in question available for leasing, but he postponed acting for years. “There was this rumor of this roadless rule and we were told to hold off,” he said. Then, after the national rule was implemented, a Wyoming judge found it to be null and void. Osier said he consulted with the regional Forest Service office, which talked to officials in Washington, D.C., who said the land should be offered for leasing. “That was the legal opinion at that point in time,” he said. Despite that Forest Service decision during the Bush administration, the battle over the 2001 rule continued to play out in court, with sometimes-conflicting rulings. But last year, the 10th Circuit Court of Appeals, which has jurisdiction over both Wyoming and Colorado, ruled in favor of the national rule, which also was upheld by the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals. And this month, the U.S. Supreme Court declined to hear a challenge to last year’s 10th Circuit Court ruling, meaning the national rule was upheld “as the law of the land”...more

 “There was this rumor of this roadless rule and we were told to hold off,” he said.

This is an example of why so many folks don't trust the land management agencies.  In this instance you have a land use plan which allows leasing, but they were told to "hold off" because of a "rumor".

So why have a land use plan?  Impose the agenda now and bring the plans into compliance later.  

They should be called Rumor Areas instead of Roadless Areas.

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