From the Denver POST:

The Bush administration is pressing in its waning months in office to implement a spate of rule and policy changes that could reshape the face of the West.

The changes at the federal Bureau of Land Management, the U.S. Forest Service and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service would open tracts to development while removing protections for land and species.

"The Bush administration is trying to set the rules of the game in stone," said Sharon Bucci, public-lands director for the Washington, D.C.-based Natural Resources Defense Council.

"They are trying to put their stamp and their management on public lands," Bucci said.

Bush administration officials say that many of the initiatives have taken years to develop and have been scrutinized by the public.

"The only thing the BLM is guilty of here is being late," said Celia Boddington, an agency spokeswoman. "Many of these changes were updates that are long overdue."

The most visible of the Bush administration moves in Colorado was the BLM's decision last week to open 52,000 acres of the Roan Plateau to oil and gas leasing. The lease sale is scheduled for August.

Among other actions are:

-----------------------------------------------------------------------

From August 2005 to September 2007, a total of 1,632 exclusions were issued in Colorado, Wyoming, Montana, New Mexico and Utah, according to the Wilderness Society.

"The sense is that the granting of CXs is accelerating," Culver said. The Moab and Price, Utah, field offices, for example, issued 70 CXs in the Wilderness Society study.

Since April, the Price office has issued more than 20, according to the Utah environmental notification bulletin board.

"Part of what is going here is that the price of oil and gas is driving exploration. There is more drilling â€" there are more wells and as a result more CXs," said BLM's Boddington.

Mark Jaffe: 303-954-1912 or mjaffe@denverpost.com

[edited for length] complete article here