President Barack Obama can establish a conservation legacy by
taking a balanced approach to energy development on our public
lands. That legacy must ensure that America's greatest treasures
— our national parks — don't get run over in the rush to develop
the next oil and gas well. Unfortunately, things are out of
balance in Colorado. Bureau of Land Management state director
Helen Hankins has proposed oil and gas leasing next to both
Dinosaur National Monument and Mesa Verde National Park. For 10
years, I served as the superintendent of Dinosaur National
Monument. I understand the difficult job before the director,
but oil and gas leasing proposals should never have arrived on
the doorstep of these great treasures. President Woodrow Wilson
established Dinosaur National Monument in 1915, and President
Franklin D. Roosevelt expanded the boundaries of the park in
1938 to the 200,000 acres of popular canyon country, mountains,
and rivers that it is today. Dinosaur is a world-class park.
Paleontologists have found