Rock Creek Roadless Area

Rock Creek Roadless Area
IUCN category V (protected landscape/seascape)
Harvey's Peak at sunset
Location	Bighorn Mountains, north of Buffalo, WY, Johnson County, northeastern Wyoming.
Nearest city	Saddlestring
Governing body	USFS

The Rock Creek Roadless Area (B032) is located northwest of Buffalo, Wyoming, in the Bighorn National Forest. It comprises roughly 34,000 acres (140 km²) of forested timberlands, mountain parks, rugged canyons, and stunning rock formations. This area represents the entire spectrum of environments found in the Bighorn National Forest and encompasses prairie land to high alpine peaks. This roadless area is the source of the north, middle, and south forks of Rock Creek, Balm of Gilead Creek, Pheasant Creek, and Ditch Creek. The area is flanked on the eastern side by the Bud Love Big Game Winter Range and the HF Bar Ranch Historic District. On the southern side the roadless area is surrounded by the Paradise Guest Ranch. The roadless area is home to elk, moose, mountain lion, pine marten, blue grouse, ruffed grouse, and raptors. The Rock Creek area is the largest area of quality elk security habitat outside of the Cloud Peak Wilderness Area and would provide an important corridor from the high country to the Bud Love Habitat Management Unit. The Rock Creek roadless area is dominated by lodgepole pine, some ponderosa, and aspen stands with low-growing juniper in the undergrowth. The area has not been opened to roads due to the ruggedness of the landscape and the high costs of implementation.

In the 1990s three holes were drilled and abandoned north, south, and east of Rock Creek to assess the area for oil and gas production. The area has a very low potential for natural resource and mineral exploitation.

A roadless area is the designation for backcountry, undeveloped lands having wilderness attributes as specified in the Wilderness Act of 1964 and that could be considered for inclusion in the National Wilderness Preservation System. The Rock Creek area was inventoried in the Roadless Area Review and Evaluation process (RARE II) and managed under the land management plans of the US Forest Service. The Roadless Area Conservation Rule was a federal regulation that was adopted by the U.S. Forest Service shortly before President William Clinton left office on Jan. 12, 2001. It allowed reasonable exceptions for management activities like fire suppression and other public health safety measures, and permitted projects, such as grazing and mining, with valid existing rights to proceed. At the same time, the national roadless rule attempted to conserve fish and wildlife habitat while not closing any existing access to these lands. At issue are 58.5 million acres (236,000 km²), located in 42 states, but primarily in the West. Within 24 hours of taking office, President Bush’s appointees began their campaign, with the timber industry, to undo this new rule. In May 2005, the Bush administration repealed the Roadless Rule, replacing it with a process that allows governors to petition the Forest Service for protection of the national forest roadless lands within their states, but giving the federal government the power to reject the petitions. The states of California, Oregon, New Mexico, and Washington successfully challenged the Bush roadless rule, resulting in reinstatement of the Clinton rule in 2006, the Roadless Area Conservation Rule was re-established. This rule set national guidelines limiting backcountry timber harvest and road construction and reconstruction with a goal of upholding the roadless characteristics found on millions of acres of inventoried roadless areas. The state of Wyoming and the Colorado Mining Association are currently involved in a lawsuit with the 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals on the basis that the 2001 federal rule banning construction of new roads on National Forest land violates the law.