Feds propose 20-year ban on mining, oil and gas drilling on 225,000 acres in Thompson Divide
Dec 12, 2023
The Forest Service and Bureau of Land Management plan to remove 224,713 acres from possible mining or oil and gas drilling for the next 20 years would seem worthy of an end-zone celebration in Crested Butte, where the community has spent more than 45 years battling a plan to mine molybdenum on Mount Emmons above town.
But they aren’t spiking the football just yet in the East River Valley, where they call the 12,392-foot peak the Red Lady and hardy skiers regularly carve their signatures in the glowing bowl above Elk Avenue. The draft decision released last week by federal land managers that suspends mining and oil and gas permits on public land inside the Thompson Divide is a first down in the red zone for Crested Butte. Twenty years is good. Crested Butte wants a forever ban.
