The Thompson fins jut out of the mountains along Thompson Creek along the eastern edge of the Thompson Divide, on Friday, June 7, 2024.
How Colorado Cowboys and Conservationists Joined Forces to Stop Drilling
"The drilling leases in a pristine corner of Colorado seemed like a done deal. But then an unlikely alliance of cowboys and environmentalists emerged. And things changed," writes reporter Zoë Rom.
"The members of the group — a self-described ragtag organization that included ranchers, cyclists and snowmobilers — had little in common aside from a desire to protect the expanse, almost a quarter-million acres of public land known as the Thompson Divide. But they ultimately developed a novel legal strategy that helped win a 20-year pause on new oil and gas development across the area.
That strategy could serve as a model for future conservation efforts."
Photographed for The New York Times
Peter Hart, legal director for Wilderness Workshop, poses for a portrait along Thompson Creek Trail. Hart and his colleagues at Wilderness Workshop, working alongside the Thompson Divide Coalition, learned that the Bush administration’s haste to issue oil and gas leases in the 2000s left them legally vulnerable.
Thousands of aspen trees grow in the Kebler grove, in contention to be the world’s largest organism, in the Thompson Divide.
Oil and gas well pads dot the landscape just outside of the divide. Ranchers, cyclists, snowmobilers, and conservationists rallied together against the biggest common perceived threat to their home – oil and gas.
A spider is caught in a trail map at the Thompson Creek Trailhead. The Divide includes part of the White River National Forest, among the most visited national forests in the country.
Dust kicks up along one of the few roads in the Thompson Divide in Garfield County, Colo. The remote, nearly quarter-million acres swath of land is home to endangered lynxes.
Community members watch as Peter Hart, legal director for Wilderness Workshop, honors Judy Fox-Perry during the celebration of the Thompson Divide’s withdrawal from new oil and gas development for the next 20 years at Sopris Park in Carbondale, Colo.
Candy falls out a piñata made from repurposed no-drilling protest signs after Luca, center, hit the piñata during the celebration.
People drink the celebratory special edition beer, Thompson Divide Strawpile, from Mountain Heart Brewing Company.
The Roaring Fork Youth Orchestra performs, surrounded by "Unified for Thompson Divide" signs, during the gathering.
Bill Fales, a rancher along the eastern boundary of the Divide, talks with Hart during the celebration before Fales was honored as an important player in the fight for protection.
Peter Hart, legal director of Wilderness Workshop at right, raises his drink on stage alongside campaign manager Michael Gorman.
Vera Risi, 3, sits on her dad’s shoulders alongside other community members at the gathering. Risi has been going hiking with her father, Joe Risi, in the Thompson Divide since she was two months old.
Last light hits the landscape in the northern reaches of the Thompson Divide in Garfield County, Colo.
