WildEarth Guardians

Wednesday, December 26, 2012
Guardians Files Emergency Appeal to Protect Rocky Flats Wildlife Refuge

Highway Developers to Decimate Open Space Along Colorado's Front Range
Contact: Jeremy Nichols (303) 573-4898 x 1303

Denver—Seeking to safeguard clean air, wildlife, and valuable open space, WildEarth Guardians today called on a federal appeals court to temporarily block a decision by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to sell a portion of the Rocky Flats National Wildlife Refuge in Colorado to highway developers.

“The Front Range is threatened by highway developers seeking to pave over every last acre of open space and wildlife habitat,” said Jeremy Nichols, WildEarth Guardians’ Climate and Energy Program Director.  “With our quality of life and the health of our communities at stake, we need better solutions than just blindly building more roads and more subdivision.”

The emergency motion for an injunction, which was joined by Rocky Mountain Wild and the Town of Superior, comes on the heels of a ruling issued by a U.S. District Court Judge in Denver last Friday, December 21st. That ruling held that a Fish and Wildlife Service decision to transfer ownership of a three-mile long, 300-foot strip of land along the eastern edge of the Rocky Flats Wildlife Refuge to the Jefferson Parkway Public Highway Authority was not illegal. 

The Highway Authority, a private entity, intends to construct a new four lane, high speed toll road adjacent to Indiana Street, which currently skirts the east side of Rocky Flats.  If the Fish and Wildlife Service’s decision is upheld, it will all but guarantee that the toll road gets built.

In early 2012, WildEarth Guardians and Rocky Mountain Wild joined the City of Golden and Town of Superior in filing suit to stop the highway development.  The groups’ lawsuit challenged the Fish and Wildlife Service’s failure to analyze the impacts of the highway development.  Even though it would destroy hundreds of acres of wildlife habitat, open the door for hundreds more acres of suburban development next to one of the Denver metro area’s last large blocks of undeveloped open space, disturb miles of plutonium contaminated land, and fuel the region’s air quality problems, the Fish and Wildlife Service refused to address such impacts.

Among the wildlife species that stands be most impacted is the Preble’s meadow jumping mouse, a rare and threatened species that depends on high quality streamside habitats along the Front Range.  The loss of open space has been cited as the primary threat to the Preble’s mouse.

Often referred to as a “beltway boondoggle,” the Highway Authority has forthrightly stated that its toll road is meant to trigger more urban sprawl and highway construction in Jefferson County.  Eventually, the Highway Authority intends to link the toll road to C-470 and the Northwest Parkway, cutting across open space and through communities like Golden and Superior in the process.

“This isn’t just a highway, it’s a link in a chain of planned construction that promises to choke our open spaces, smog up our skies, and leave our wildlife without a home,” said Nichols.  “We’re doing everything we can to ensure that the values that we appreciate most along the Front Range get a fair shot at being protected.”

Although the Fish and Wildlife Service had claimed that as part of the Rocky Flats Wildlife Refuge transfer, it would acquire a section of land owned by the State of Colorado, called Section 16, located southwest of Rocky Flats, the Service has stated on several occasions that the acquisition could happen independent of transferring ownership for the highway.  Most recently, the Service acquired ownership of the minerals below Section 16, meaning that even if the transfer does not happen, Section 16 will remain largely protected.

Today’s motion, filed with the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 10th Circuit in Denver, asks the court to enjoin the Fish and Wildlife Service’s decision while WildEarth Guardians’ appeal of the District Court’s ruling is pending.  A decision on the injunction is expected by this Friday.