Our mission is to facilitate the Southern Utah Wilderness Alliance (SUWA) in its quest to protect some of the most fragile and important landscapes on the Colorado Plateau. With our flight path following the Green River, 1XE climbed up and over the Book Cliffs and looking at the Gasco oil and natural gas development, and the Bill Barrett land swap, we were both encouraged and disappointed by the politics and controversy over this wild landscape.
EcoFlight has developed an informative aerial tour for oil shale development in this region. Our overflights were professionally facilitated by Colorado Environmental Coalition, in tandem with their on-the-ground briefings for the press, focusing on the challenges presented by oil shale. On the first flight of the day the Flat Tops wilderness area looms out of the sunrise to the north. This area is home to the biggest elk herd in the U.S.A., a pristine mountain landscape, with lush valleys of aspen and fir trees. This rich wildlife habitat is the summer destination of the elk and mule deer migrations from adjacent low lying areas like the Piceance Basin - the focus of our overflights.
Day 358 of the year 2011 and Starship 1XE is headed over the hills to the town of Paonia, Colorado. Our mission today takes us to the North Fork Valley which is home to organic farms, orchards, vineyards, ranches and excellent hiking and fishing. There are a number of coal mines in the area and a growing presence of oil and gas activity. When we stop for lunch there are notices posted around the town about public meetings to be held to discuss another 30,000 acres that have been nominated for oil and gas leasing in the Paonia, Somerset, Hotchkiss and Crawford areas. Some of these 22 lease parcels would be in vital watersheds and in viable agricultural areas.
Captain's Log, 1XE, Day 9 of the month of September in the Earth calendar year 2011.
Roadless.... a place without roads. Last seen in abundance in the 20th century. Reduced to a myriad of conversations and confusing rule changes. A concept strongly felt by a multitude of stakeholders all looking after good ole number one - themselves.
Flying machine 1XE lately flew members of the Theodore Roosevelt Conservation Partnership over the Currant Creek Roadless Area,
Captain's Log, 1XE, Day 15 of the month of June in the Earth calendar year 2011.
We are flying over the swollen Clark Fork River tumbling down from the Silver Bow Mountains near Anaconda, Montana. The Clark Fork is the main drainage for the Blackfoot, Flathead and Bitterroot Rivers, forming the major portion of the Columbia River watershed and emptying into Lake Pend Oreille in northern Idaho.
Off to the Grand Canyon to meet up with the Havasupai Indians, who have lived in the Grand Canyon for generations. The Havasupai have long been battling uranium mining development that imposes health risks on their communities and is desecrating their sacred sites. Tribal elders were venturing out of their canyon paradise to meet with reporters and activists to experience the aerial perspective of this far reaching and important issue.
It was one of those transition days where it was warm in the valleys and winter in the mountains. We made our way from Vail-Eagle in Colorado to the Piceance Basin (geologic oil-rich basin in north-west Colorado that is part of the Green River Basin formation) to attend oil shale meetings and briefings and give our passenger experts the birds' eye view of oil-shale leasing country and the impacts this will have on our water resources and large scale landscapes.
Captain's Log, 1XE, Day 24 of the month of November in the earth calendar year 2010. A day of Thanksgiving, a day to be grateful for our spectacular wildlands here in the Rocky Mountains and for you our friends and supporters.
Day 3 of the supposedly spring (been raining and snowing for days) month of June in the earth calendar year 2010.
There are gems, there are hidden gems and there are hidden, hidden gems.
Whether this is a harbinger of things to come, another milestone or just another blip on the radar, only time will tell. But last year we embarked on a series of flights revolving around the debate over New Mexico's energy future.
Looking at the prog charts (aeronautical weather data) looked like a can of worms both literally and figuratively. A quick moving cold front had just dumped up to 4 feet of snow in the Northern Rockies and in Cody and Sheridan, Wyoming.
The Thompson Creek Fins, a slice of Utah in the midst of the verdant forests of Colorado's Thompson Divide area.
Day 7 in the month of July, year 2009, Starship 1XE skims over the endless forests of the Northern Rockies in Wyoming and Montana. We embark from Jackson, Wyoming and the Bridger Teton National Forest and proceed over the mighty Gros Ventres mountains near Togwotee Pass.
Day 27 in the month of March, Year 2009. As starship 761XE, returning from Belize, skims the azure blue waters approaching Cozumel for landing and the usual run-around trying to clear Mexican customs, I reminisce on the past couple of weeks.
Day 17 in the year 2009, starship Cessna 1XE embarks on an EcoFlight supporting friends working on a National Geographic Project.
