Our Stories

The Latest by Doug Pflugh

Research Analyst

Doug Pflugh was the Research Analyst and GIS Coordinator in the Rocky Mountain office until 2014. He worked on a full range of issues confronting the Four Corner states: climate change and energy development, public lands management, and river protection. He is also a great backcountry skier and hiker.

Map of oil and gas development in the Roan Plateau Planning Area, created by Earthjustice and included in litigation filings.
June 6, 2014

Applying GIS Mapping to Environmental Law

By Doug Pflugh  /  Rocky Mountain Office

Geographic Information Systems have become an integral part of Earthjustice’s work to protect public health and the environment; GIS services are provided by our staff to support case development and litigation, advocacy and public outreach and education.

The San Pedro River.
May 14, 2014

Plan Advances to Aid San Pedro River

By Doug Pflugh  /  Rocky Mountain Office

A plan to aid the San Pedro River seeks to balance needs of endangered species and Fort Huachuca.

A fracking drill rig.
February 12, 2014

Colorado Tackles Rules Governing Oil, Gas

By Doug Pflugh  /  Rocky Mountain Office

Colorado has emerged as a western ground zero in the fracking boom, with more than 50,000 active wells in the state and 3,000 wells permitted annually on average in recent years. The state is struggling to deal with this staggering growth as well as the changing nature of the industry as operations have moved into communities along the Front Range.

February 11, 2014

Healthy Coexistence: Key to Saving San Pedro River

By Doug Pflugh  /  Rocky Mountain Office

Suit seeks to make Army help protect the river and its species

The now-dry Colorado River delta branches into the Baja / Sonoran Desert, only 5 miles north of the Sea of Cortez, Mexico.
January 24, 2014

A Year of Threats Looms for Western Rivers

By Doug Pflugh  /  Rocky Mountain Office

Drought, diversions threaten Colorado, San Pedro and other rivers

Delicate Arch in Utah.
October 18, 2013

Supreme Court Preserves Victory Over Oil/Gas Development

By Doug Pflugh  /  Rocky Mountain Office

It is rewarding to successfully wrap-up a case. This can be especially true when our work protects special places, preserving them for future generations. It is a pleasure to be able to point at a map and say, “Those are the places that were saved.” The U.S. Supreme Court took action last week that did …

May 16, 2013

Defending Arizona's "Ribbon of Life"

By Doug Pflugh  /  Rocky Mountain Office

Earthjustice has worked with our partners for more than a decade to sustain the San Pedro River of southern Arizona. Our attorneys have taken legal action—a series of cases challenging inappropriate groundwater depletions by the U.S. Army’s Fort Huachuca—to keep water in the river until a balance can be struck between the needs of the …

The Thompson Divide.
May 10, 2013

Drillers Make a Play for Thompson Divide

By Doug Pflugh  /  Rocky Mountain Office

There is no dispute that the Thompson Divide—a 220,000-acre forested wildland in western Colorado—is a special place. It comprises some of the most valuable and diverse mid-elevation forested landscapes in Colorado and includes the headwaters of streams that sustain the Crystal, Roaring Fork and North Fork valleys. Thompson Divide is a prized destination for recreationists …

April 26, 2013

Driller Seeks to Overturn Roan Plateau Victory

By Doug Pflugh  /  Rocky Mountain Office

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.

April 17, 2013

San Pedro River Faces a New Threat

By Doug Pflugh  /  Rocky Mountain Office

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 …