The Roan Plateau is a plateau in western
Colorado
Colorado (, other variants) is a state in the Mountain West subregion of the Western United States. It encompasses most of the Southern Rocky Mountains, as well as the northeastern portion of the Colorado Plateau and the western edge of t ...
, USA, in
Garfield County.
[ It contains a variety of natural resources and scenic terrain: high ridges, deep valleys, desert lands, waterfalls, cutthroat trout, ]mountain lions
The cougar (''Puma concolor'') is a large cat native to the Americas. Its range spans from the Canadian Yukon to the southern Andes in South America and is the most widespread of any large wild terrestrial mammal in the Western Hemisphere. ...
, bears, rare plants, and oil and natural gas.
In the natural-color image at right the Roan Plateau assumes shades of green, brown, and beige, and deep canyons form branching, tree-like patterns on the landscape, and desert lands in the portions west of Meeker, Craig, and Rifle.
Irrigation enables crops to thrive in this largely arid environment, evidenced by the relative greenness of the orchards and lawns around Grand Junction, Colorado
Grand Junction is a home rule municipality that is the county seat and the most populous municipality of Mesa County, Colorado, United States. The city population was 65,560 at the 2020 United States Census, making Grand Junction the 17th mos ...
. West of Rifle, the high desert terrain begins. Small towns of Battlement Mesa, Parachute, and De Beque are all high desert terrain. The land of Grand Junction and all around the city is pale beige, and has high desert terrain. This desert landscape extends west and southwest into Utah
Utah ( , ) is a state in the Mountain West subregion of the Western United States. Utah is a landlocked U.S. state bordered to its east by Colorado, to its northeast by Wyoming, to its north by Idaho, to its south by Arizona, and to it ...
, and north across the Roan Plateau, and into Wyoming
Wyoming () is a U.S. state, state in the Mountain states, Mountain West subregion of the Western United States. It is bordered by Montana to the north and northwest, South Dakota and Nebraska to the east, Idaho to the west, Utah to the south ...
. The desert land also extends southeast through Whitewater
Whitewater forms in a rapid context, in particular, when a river's gradient changes enough to generate so much turbulence that air is trapped within the water. This forms an unstable current that froths, making the water appear opaque and ...
, Delta
Delta commonly refers to:
* Delta (letter) (Δ or δ), a letter of the Greek alphabet
* River delta, at a river mouth
* D ( NATO phonetic alphabet: "Delta")
* Delta Air Lines, US
* Delta variant of SARS-CoV-2 that causes COVID-19
Delta may also ...
, Olathe, and Montrose, and then the desert lands end as you pass the Montrose area. East of Grand Junction, however, Grand Mesa
The Grand Mesa is a large mesa in western Colorado in the United States. It is the largest flat-topped mountain in the world. It has an area of about and stretches for about east of Grand Junction between the Colorado River and the Gunniso ...
(partially obscured by clouds) is well-forested with conifers.
Natural gas
The plateau's energy reserves invite exploration and drilling: existing wells produce natural gas immediately adjacent to the plateau. In 2000 the U.S. Bureau of Land Management began developing the Roan Plateau Resource Management Plan. Released in final form in early 2008, the plan allowed for recovery of natural gas
Natural gas (also called fossil gas or simply gas) is a naturally occurring mixture of gaseous hydrocarbons consisting primarily of methane in addition to various smaller amounts of other higher alkanes. Low levels of trace gases like carbo ...
from beneath the plateau while setting aside 21,034 acres (85 square kilometers) as an Area of Critical Environmental Concern
Areas of Critical Environmental Concern (ACEC) is a conservation ecology program in the Western United States, managed by the Bureau of Land Management (BLM). The ACEC program was conceived in the 1976 Federal Lands Policy and Management Act (F ...
.
In accordance with the Management Plan, the BLM leased for gas development on the Roan Plateau in August 2008. The winning competitive bids totaled $113.9 million in lease bonuses, a record for a federal onshore lease sale in the lower 48 states. The Colorado state government will receive 49% of the lease bonuses, as well as 49% of subsequent royalties (royalties are 12.5% of the gross value) from gas sales. The lease sale received much criticism from those opposed to development on the plateau, including from Colorado Governor Bill Ritter.[Nick Snow, "Record-breaking Colorado lease sale still falls short," ''Oil & Gas Journal'', 25 August 2008, p.30.]
See also
*Piceance Basin
The Piceance Basin is a geologic structural basin in northwestern Colorado, in the United States. It includes geologic formations from Cambrian to Holocene in age, but the thickest section is made up of rocks from the Cretaceous Period. The basi ...
References
Further reading
Roan Plateau, Colorado
This article incorporates text from this public domain
The public domain (PD) consists of all the creative work
A creative work is a manifestation of creative effort including fine artwork (sculpture, paintings, drawing, sketching, performance art), dance, writing (literature), filmmaking, ...
NASA webpage.
Full-size image of Roan Plateau
from NASA Earth Observatory
NASA Earth Observatory is an online publishing outlet for NASA which was created in 1999. It is the principal source of satellite imagery and other scientific information pertaining to the climate and the environment which are being provided by NA ...
.
External links
BLM Roan Plateau Resource Management Plan and Final EIS
Accessed October 2, 2008.
Center for Native Ecosystems: Roan Plateau
Accessed October 2, 2008.
from National Geographic Magazine
''National Geographic'' (formerly the ''National Geographic Magazine'', sometimes branded as NAT GEO) is a popular American monthly magazine published by National Geographic Partners. Known for its photojournalism, it is one of the most widely ...
, July 2005. Accessed October 2, 2008.
{{Authority control
Garfield County, Colorado
Colorado Western Slope
Plateaus of the United States
Wikipedia articles incorporating text from NASA