The big beautiful drill act

Cyclists on North Dakota's Maah Daah Hey Trail.

The big beautiful drill act

Late last year, three recreation groups with an interest in protecting the Maah Daah Hey Trail—a popular 144-mile singletrack route for hikers, mountain bikers, and horseback riders that winds through the Badlands of western North Dakota—noticed something strange. The Bureau of Land Management (BLM) had started the process of selling lease rights to 23 oil and gas parcels in the vicinity of the trail, nine of which are right on top of it or very close. If the sales go through and drilling eventually commences, large portions of the trail could, in theory, become unusable, forcing a reroute to keep it viable as a recreation setting, RE:PUBLIC reports.

Originally published on republic.land, part of the BLOX Digital Content Exchange.

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