The Roan Plateau has been ranked as one of the four most biologically rich areas in Colorado.  (Michael Freeman)

The Roan Plateau stands proudly above the Colorado River, an island of refuge in the sea of energy development that threatens to industrialize much of western Colorado. The Plateau contains more than 30 square miles of pristine wildlands and is one of the most biologically rich landscapes in Colorado. The Roan is undoubtedly better suited to be a refuge for wildlife, rare plants and big game than a maze of natural gas wells, pipelines and roads. It is truly a place that is too special to drill.

Earthjustice and our clients have fought for nearly five years to keep the Roan Plateau a wild place. That fight culminated in victory last year when federal Judge Marcia Krieger struck down a Bush-era Bureau of Land Management plan for extensive development on the plateau. The court directed the BLM to consider more protective approaches for managing this biological hotspot. The BLM is complying with that order and began a new environmental review process earlier this year.

Rich ecosystems flourish around the San Pedro River.  (Jeff Kennedy / USGS)

The upper San Pedro River valley in Arizona is the epitome of the Wild West. Open and arid, stretching north from Mexico and lying in the shadow of the rugged Huachuca Mountains, the valley looks much the same as it did more than a century ago when miners and settlers uneasily shared the land. It is a place where the long shadows at sunset bring visitors back to a long-past time.

Cutting across that mythic landscape is the treasure of the valley, the San Pedro River, last free-flowing river in the desert Southwest. A remnant of the formerly extensive network of desert riparian ecosystems, the river has dwindled in recent decades as development moved into the valley. And now the San Pedro may be drained to feed a proposed mega-development.

Spring blooms of fireweed in the Reservation Divide roadless area in Montana’s Coeur D’Alene Mountains. (© Terry Glase)

Time has run out for the enemies of roadless wilderness. They spent 12 years trying to kill the national law protecting our forests, and yesterday a federal district court said they couldn’t have a minute more—the statute of limitations had run out.

This means you better grab a compass when heading into a national forest because you can get lost amid all the trees saved by this law, known as the Roadless Rule.

Green River Butte.

Thanks to a recent federal court decision, visitors to Utah’s public wild lands can continue to raft the Green River in Dinosaur National Monument without seeing oil derricks around the river’s bends.

They can continue to enjoy the outlook from Canyonlands National Park’s Grand View Point without drill rigs littering the landscape.

And they won’t be forced to see the formations at Arches National Park as gateways to increased carbon emissions and environmental disruption.