From the Telluride Daily Planet:
About 400 acres of high desert land will be removed from an upcoming oil and gas lease sale due to its proximity to the Dolores River. Stretches of the Dolores, which pours through the Big Gypsum Valley and has worn grooves through the red rock of the southwest, are up for wild and scenic river corridor designation, potentially affording the river lofty environmental protections. Part of the roughly 1,200 acres in San Miguel County in the Bureau of Land Management’s mineral rights auction on May 14 inched toward the Dolores, prompting a review from county officials. The BLM has deferred about 400 acres near the river.