The Bureau of Land Management and the Southern Ute Indian Tribe have opened scoping for a Programmatic Environmental Impact Statement covering oil and gas development across a 108,000-acre planning area within the Southern Ute Indian Reservation in southwestern Colorado.
Who is involved and what is covered
The BLM's Tres Rios Field Office and the Tribe are acting as joint lead agencies on the review, with the Bureau of Indian Affairs serving as a cooperating agency. The Programmatic EIS will look at upstream exploration and development of the Mancos Shale Formation and other oil and gas resources the United States holds in trust for the Tribe, on lands already under lease within the reservation.
Of the 108,000 surface acres in the planning area, about 64,000 mineral acres are held in trust for the Tribe, 42,000 are fee minerals, and 2,000 are held in trust for individual Indian allottees. The Tribal trust minerals in the area are already under lease, granted under the Indian Mineral Leasing Act of 1938 and the Indian Mineral Development Act of 1982.
The BLM says the goal of the review is to allow development of the trust minerals in a manner it describes as "orderly, efficient, economical, and environmentally acceptable." The agency says federal action is required because it must approve exploration and production on the leased trust minerals and ensure development serves the Tribe's interest under the federal trust obligation, citing the National Environmental Policy Act, the two mineral leasing laws, and the Federal Oil and Gas Royalty Management Act.
Two alternatives on the table
The BLM and the Tribe are weighing a No Action Alternative, which would continue current oil and gas management actions and conditions of approval, against a Proposed Action Alternative called the Trust Resources Planning Alternative, which would modify existing management by establishing new goals for the planning area.
How to comment
The BLM and the Tribe are asking for comments on the scope of the analysis, alternatives, and relevant information by October 5, 2026. An in-person scoping meeting is set for September 24, 2026, from 6 p.m. to 8:30 p.m. Mountain time at the Sky Ute Casino Resort in Ignacio, Colorado, on the reservation. Comments can also be mailed to the BLM Tres Rios Field Office, attention Ryan Joyner, the assistant field manager for lands and minerals, in Dolores, Colorado.
