Outdoors crowd engages in energy debate

RIFLE, Colo. – Outdoors guide Keith Goddard remembers when he could go for hours or even days and not see another person on top of western Colorado’s Roan Plateau.

“Up until a few years ago, you could stand right here all day long, and if you’d seen one or two vehicles, you’d seen a bunch,” Goddard said, peering from a field of wildflowers to rocky, wooded slopes below.

As he spoke, three 18-wheelers sped by in a noisy reminder of the natural gas boom many expect to get even bigger in this stretch of land 180 miles west of Denver. It is prized by both energy companies and by people like Goddard, a 42-year-old member of the so-called “hook and bullet” crowd that is wielding more and more clout when it comes to managing public land