Saving Colorado’s HD Mountains from Damaging Drilling

Earthjustice filed a legal challenge against a proposed natural gas drilling project in the HD Mountains of southwest Colorado to prevent the destruction of old-growth and roadless forests.

• A proposed natural gas drilling project near Durango, Colorado, planned for almost 200 new coalbed methane wells, including 8 to 9 miles of new roads and approximately 30 wells within the undeveloped HD Mountains roadless area. The project was expected to bulldoze roadless forest, destroy old-growth forest, and increase smog in southwest Colorado near Mesa Verde National Park.
• The Forest Service and BLM approved the drilling plan even though they admitted it did not meet the requirements of the San Juan Forest Plan regarding the protection of water quality, riparian areas, wildlife habitat, and old-growth forest.
• Following a lawsuit by Earthjustice on behalf of conservation groups in the district court and federal court of appeals, the Forest Service is performing further environmental reviews, and no drilling has taken place in the roadless area.

APA

Earthjustice (2008). Saving Colorado’s HD Mountains from Damaging Drilling. https://earthjustice.org/case/challenge-to-coalbed-methane-development-in-hd-mountains

Chicago

Earthjustice. Saving Colorado’s HD Mountains from Damaging Drilling. 2008. https://earthjustice.org/case/challenge-to-coalbed-methane-development-in-hd-mountains.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |author=Earthjustice |title=Saving Colorado’s HD Mountains from Damaging Drilling |date=23 January 2008 |url=https://earthjustice.org/case/challenge-to-coalbed-methane-development-in-hd-mountains |access-date=17 August 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{earthjustice2008saving, author = {{Earthjustice}}, title = {{Saving Colorado’s HD Mountains from Damaging Drilling}}, institution = {Earthjustice}, year = {2008}, month = jan, url = {https://earthjustice.org/case/challenge-to-coalbed-methane-development-in-hd-mountains}, urldate = {2026-08-17}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }