DENVER — The federal Bureau of Land Management (BLM) announced on Sept. 2 that it is considering leasing 72,848 acres of our shared public lands across Colorado in its March 2026 oil and gas lease sale. This would be the largest sale since 2018, when the BLM sold about 68,000 acres. 

This is the first proposed lease sale in Colorado following the passage of President Trump’s One Big Beautiful Bill Act (OBBB) in July, which is full of handouts to the oil and gas industry, including:

• Mandatory quarterly oil and gas lease sales
• The return of non-competitive leasing, allowing companies to secure leases for just $3 per acre
• A 25 percent reduction of the royalty rate that companies pay to the American people
• The elimination of the $5 per acre lease nomination fee that discouraged speculative leasing

The proposed leases include parcels with significant conflicts with wilderness-quality lands, wildlife habitat and Front Range communities, including:

• A parcel in close proximity to Aurora Reservoir, Arapahoe County Fairgrounds, Bally’s Arapahoe Park horse track, the City of Aurora’s Binney Water Purification Facility and countless homes
• Wilderness-quality lands in Routt, Rio Blanco and Garfield counties, including extensive portions of unroaded BLM wildlands and highly valued backcountry hunting areas of the Book Cliffs near Douglas Pass 
• The Roan and Carr Creek Area of Critical Environmental Concern (ACEC), established to protect important riparian habitat and genetically pure populations of native Colorado cutthroat trout 
• The Duck Creek ACEC, designated to safeguard sensitive populations of rare plants, including the Dudley Bluffs bladderpod
• The canyons and mesas of Plateau Creek, along the Grand Mesa Scenic Byway outside of Grand Junction and Palisade  
• Nearly the entire Seymour Lake State Wildlife Area in North Park, near the town of Walden

The One Big Beautiful Bill Act (OBBB) curtails BLM’s ability to say “no” to making acreage available for leasing, including in response to local concerns. BLM must make available for lease any eligible parcel of public land nominated by industry, including lands next to more than 60 national parks and many state parks, campgrounds and recreation areas — even local schools and medical centers. This risks disregarding the concerns of local communities, counties, states, hunters, anglers, recreationists and ranchers.

Colorado is just beginning to see the impacts of the OBBB provisions that give away control of millions of acres of our public lands to the oil and gas industry, potentially costing American taxpayers billions in revenue — and tens of millions in royalty revenue to Coloradans, who are already facing a dire budget environment brought on by funding cuts in the OBBB. Industry has already nominated 150,000 acres of Colorado’s public lands for oil and gas leasing in 2025 alone, so we can expect these lease sales to continue growing in size and conflict.

The additional proposed leases come at a time when Colorado continues to experience dire impacts from climate change, including a wildfire season that was predicted to be “average” but has already burned well over 200,000 acres due to much of the Western Slope being in severe to extreme drought.

Additionally, on the heels of this proposed lease sale, the Trump administration announced its intention to rescind the Public Lands Rule, formally known as the Conservation and Landscape Health Rule. This rulemaking, completed by the Biden administration, established that conservation, access to nature, protection of cultural resources, wildlife habitat and action on climate change are just as essential as drilling, mining and other industrial uses on public lands. The proposed rescission of the Public Lands Rule, the passage of the OBBB and a host of executive orders has made it abundantly clear that the Trump administration has prioritized the wishes of corporations over the interests of the public. 

“We’re seeing first-hand in Colorado the fallout from the ‘One Big Beautiful Bill Act’ that Congress just passed to hand over our public lands to the oil and gas industry,” said Peter Hart, legal director at Wilderness Workshop. “While Congressional Republicans claim to champion local control, their actions paint a different picture — and now local communities throughout Colorado are at risk of losing cherished hunting, camping and fishing spots to the oil and gas industry. Adding insult to injury, the bill also slashed the royalty rate paid by companies for producing oil and gas on public lands, robbing American taxpayers of billions and gutting local government revenues.”

“This administration has made it clear they don’t value America’s public lands,” said Soren Jespersen, director of the Colorado Wildlands Project. “First, they tried to sneak a provision into the Big Beautiful Bill to sell them off to the highest bidder. When that spectacularly failed, they shifted tactics and are instead trying to simply lease them off to the oil and gas industry. The goal is the same, handing over control of our public lands, vital wildlife habitat and recreation areas to industry insiders for private profit.”

“Coloradans will lose their freedom to access their public lands because of this proposed lease sale,” said Jim Ramey, Colorado state director at The Wilderness Society. “Public lands across Colorado are a key economic driver, hub for thriving recreational opportunities, sources of clean air and water, and much more. This lease sale shortchanges future generations by surrendering our lands to fossil fuel interests, ignoring the overwhelming number of Coloradans who want public lands protections and balanced management, not lands locked up for decades of drilling.”

“This proposed lease sale hands tens of thousands of acres across Colorado to the oil and gas industry that will have damaging impacts for wildlife habitat, our communities and our public lands as a whole,” said Luke Schafer, Conservation Colorado’s West Slope director. “With the passage of the so-called ‘One Big Beautiful Bill Act,’ the Trump administration has made it clear that they will prioritize oil and gas above all other public land use, regardless of the long-term costs that future generations will face because of these decisions.”

This press release is shared on behalf of a coalition of conservation groups working to keep Colorado’s public lands in public hands. Coalition members include Wilderness Workshop, Colorado Wildlands Project, The Wilderness Society and Conservation Colorado.

Additional Press Contacts:

Jim Ramey, The Wilderness Society | [email protected]

Peter Hart, Wilderness Workshop | [email protected]

Soren Jespersen, Colorado Wildlands Project | [email protected]