Grand Junction – U.S. Sen. Ken Salazar has joined environmental and conservation groups in questioning an unexpected delay in the release of a management plan for the Grand Mesa, Uncompahgre and Gunnison National Forests.
The plan was scheduled to be released July 21, and 16,000 copies of the summary, and an undisclosed number of weighty full drafts and CDs, had been printed when the release was delayed by a review in the office of Mark Rey, undersecretary for natural resources and environment in the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
A spokesman for Rey’s office insists the review is routine. Initially, spokesman Dan Jiron said the review would delay the release only a few days. He said a week later that the draft plan was under scrutiny to make sure it complies with the 2005 Energy Policy Act.
Environmental and conservation groups have expressed concerns that energy companies pressured Rey to make the plan, which governs activities in the forests, more energy friendly.
Jiron denied energy-industry influence had anything to do with the delay. He said all new forest management plans are being looked over in Rey’s office as a matter of course – even after they are printed.
Local forest officials have been unusually tight-lipped about the delay.
“I have no comment,” said Carmine Lockwood, the GMUG planner who has spent more than four years on the draft that will direct future management of the 3 million acres of the forests that span eight Western Slope counties.
Salazar, D-Colo., plans to question Rey today during Rey’s scheduled appearance before a Senate subcommittee.
Salazar wrote to Rey last week that “many residents of western Colorado are puzzled by the recent actions of the U.S. Forest Service.” He noted that the public, including affected mineral operators, had been invited to give comment on the plan during dozens of meetings over the years.
“There will be widespread skepticism if the plan is now pulled back for revision,” Salazar wrote.
Overviews of the draft plan that have been posted on the GMUG website show that some lands in Delta County where coal, oil and gas companies have expressed an interest in mining and drilling fall in a “theme” category that could limit such development.
Jim Maxwell, a spokesman for the regional office of the U.S. Forest Service, said he has no knowledge of any energy-industry objections to the draft plan.
“It is just becoming more routine for this last checkpoint of the plan to occur,” Maxwell said.
Rey recently was accused of – and denied – allegations of colluding with those proposing a development on Wolf Creek Pass in southern Colorado. Rey insisted he had no hand in decision- making related to the environmental assessment and permits for the project. But documents showed that he met repeatedly with key proponents of the development.
That has heightened concerns about the GMUG plan.
“We’re suspicious,” said Bill Grant, a board member with the Western Colorado Congress. “There was a great deal of public input and a great many years of work on this plan, and all of a sudden at the last hour there seems to be influence from Mark Rey and his office. It sounds a lot like somebody is trying to get a second bite at the apple.”
Staff writer Nancy Lofholm can be reached at 970-256-1957 or nlofholm@denverpost.com.
