Coal Mine Expansion in Colorado Roadless Forest Likely to Face Challenge
December 31, 2012
4:51 PM
Coal Mine Expansion in Colorado Roadless Forest Likely to Face Challenge
Roadless area next to West Elk Wilderness would be decimated by bulldozing & scraping
DENVER, Colo. - December 31 - Conservation groups are gearing up to protect a forested roadless area and lynx habitat threatened with destruction by recent federal agency approvals of a coal mine expansion 10 miles east of Paonia, Colorado. The coal lease expansion paves the way for corporate giant Arch Coal to bulldoze 6.5 miles of road and 48 natural gas drilling pads through 1,700 acres—nearly three-square miles—of wild, roadless forest for the company’s West Elk mine.
The Bureau of Land Management (BLM) approved the coal lease expansion last Thursday, a decision that followed an August 2012 Forest Service decision to “consent” to the destructive expansion on the Gunnison National Forest. The roadless area at stake includes forest of aspen and giant spruce, beaver lodges and meadows in an area used by hikers and hunters. The area provides habitat for lynx, a species listed as threatened under the Endangered Species Act, as well as elk, black bear, and hawks.
In mid-December, four conservation groups—High Country Citizens’ Alliance, WildEarth Guardians, Sierra Club, and Rocky Mountain Wild—filed a notice of intent to sue the Forest Service under the Endangered Species Act for failing to ensure that the mine expansion would not harm lynx. The agency failed to consider that approving the lease expansion will permit Arch Coal to bulldoze additional roads through lynx habitat on other nearby National Forest and private lands.
The groups are also considering filing a formal challenge to the BLM’s December 27 decision to approve the lease modifications. Such a challenge would have to be filed with the Department of the Interior’s Board of Land Appeals in late January.
More:
http://www.commondreams.org/newswire/2012/12/31