Driving through the Hoback Valley I always marvel at the untouched beauty of its mountains and the timeless tranquility of its river bottom ranches, the Wyoming range to the west and the Gros Ventre Range to the east are breathtaking. Most any place else in the world this awe inspiring spot would be a tourist attraction but in Western Wyoming with its embarrassment of natural riches the Hoback Valley is just another pretty place. The Bridger-Teton National ForestÕs Gros Ventre and Wyoming Ranges are among our countries natural treasures. While the tourists flock to Yellowstone and Grand Teton Parks the Wyoming Range provides a sanctuary for locals to camp, hunt, snowmobile, fish and ride horses and ATVÕs.

The Forest Service redently leased 44,600 acres of the Wyoming RangeÕs eastern slope. This decision which effects an area west of Merna puts at risk world-class scenery, recreation, wildlife habitat, native cutthroat trout streams, and the solitude for the residents of Hoback Ranches, also at risk are roadless areas in the Cliff Creek and Hoback drainages. Bondurant is no place for a boomtown.

At the south end of the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem, between the Wyoming and Wind River mountain ranges are the high desert plains of the Upper Green River Basin. These high desert areas are where we should concentrate our mineral development as these sagebrush plains lack the visual amenities of our mountains and unlike steep mountains can easily be reclaimed.

The environmentalists will argue that these deserts serve as winter range for elk, mule deer and antelope, and as a corridor for the longest big game migration in the continental United States and that over one hundred thousand animals use this region to survive winter when the higher country of Greater Yellowstone is deep in snow. All this is true but as I drive through the area all I see is wide open sagebrush plains and 3,500 wells have already been drilled in the basin Ð somewhere! There are so many deer and antelope in the Green River Basin they are a road hazard. The industry has approval to drill at least 4,000 more and they will be good for the Wyoming Economy, WyomingÕs Wildlife Trust Fund, WyomingÕs Hathaway Scholarship Fund, etc.

Something the environmental movement doesnÕt understand is that they canÕt stop the world and kick everyone off. They have to understand that we have to get, oil, gas, coal etc. somewhere and it should be conveniently expedient when the energy deposits are sagebrush deserts, red deserts or arctic deserts (ANWR). Lets drillÕem!

While the environmentalists are spending their political capitol and energy stonewalling energy development in limited value locales and crying wolf and lying about a gamut of inconsequential issues they are building a resentful and loyal opposition by those who want a healthy economy and energy independence. Many as have I, have built up such distaste for the environmental movement that we have trouble siding with environmentalists when it comes time to preserve our treasures. Environmentalists would be more effective if they would adopt a measure of reasonableness to their cause.

Our world needs energy and it would behoove the BLM, the Forest Service and our elected representatives to shelve plans to drill in places like the Wyoming Range considering its high recreational usage. People have a lot of emotion about where they play; it isnÕt helpful for the cause of energy development to mobilize to activism the anti-environmentalist fifth wheel pulling, ATV aficionados and the like of places like the Greys River Valley. In this political climate of divisiveness it is not a good idea to create activists of the previously disengaged, a coalition of ATVÕers against drilling of the GreyÕs River Valley would soon by allaying with coalitions against drilling our sagebrush and tundra deserts and voting against energy development at the ballot box.

As an outspoken conservative multiple use advocate some will be surprised that I come down on the side of not drilling in the Wyoming Range, but it is not the first time; we successfully stopped the Shoshone National Forest from leasing an oil development at Jewell Lake, a stoneÕs throw from Brooks Lake under the Breccia Cliffs and Pinnacle Peak at the head of the Wind River by Towgotte Pass. There are treasures that should be left alone.

In a hundred years when places like the Middle East and ANWR are dry and oil is $500 a barrel, AmericaÕs energy mindset will be different and then we can drill our recreational gems without the political fallout that would be the case today.