The Bush administration is finalizing a gas-drilling plan that would send roads and drill pads slicing through southern Colorado's HD Mountains, the only remaining stretch of the San Juan Basin untouched by energy development. Covering 40,000 acres, the old-growth ponderosa pine forests of the HD range provide habitat for elk, black bears, northern goshawks and mule deer. Rich archeological sites in the area date back 1,000 years.

The administration's coalbed methane plan calls for drilling 79 wells and constructing compressor plants and 36 miles of roads in this unspoiled lowland forest in violation of the "roadless rule," which is designed to protect the wildest areas of our national forests from development. For only a tiny amount of gas, the project would decimate nearly 90 percent of the HD Mountains' old-growth stands, leave mountain streams cloudy with sediment, disturb archeological sites and uproot wildlife.

» Tell the Forest Service to protect the most sensitive areas of the HD Mountains:
http://www.savebiogems.org/yellowstone/takeaction.asp