Last week, Durango’s second fire of 2022 exploded on Bureau of Land Management land frighteningly close to town. Another 700-acre fire is still burning on our public lands near Pagosa Springs. After yet another unusually warm, windy and dry spring, it’s obvious that in our rapidly warming climate our fire season is now far more dangerous and year-round. This is only the beginning, too, and it’s going to get a lot worse.

The greenhouse gas emissions from the gas and oil industry are a major - and proven - driver of climate change. That is why I am grateful for President Biden and Interior Secretary Haaland’s wise decision to reduce the acreage of public lands available to lease for gas and oil. Reckless and speculative leasing in the West, especially while our public lands are on fire, is dangerous and shortsighted.

Durango is an incredible place to live, in part because of access to public lands. I ski, hike, fish and bike on some of the most beautiful and inspiring public lands in the country. But we’re compromising those very public lands with destructive, speculative gas and oil leasing, which generates obscene climate-changing carbon emissions and pollution, leading to even more fires. Somewhere the cycle has to stop. This is a step in the right direction.

Mark Russell

Durango