Hoback Basin

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Credit: The Wilderness Society

Home to magnificent mountains, vibrant forests, and clear rivers and streams, the Hoback Basin in the Wyoming Range is one of our country's richest natural treasures. Part of the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem—the largest intact temperate ecosystem in the northern hemisphere—the Hoback provides vital habitat for mule deer, elk, moose, and pronghorn antelope. It’s also home to the headwaters of the Wild and Scenic Hoback River.

An uncertain future

Generations of Americans have come here to fish, paddle, hike, or to simply enjoy Wyoming's backcountry. But the future of this unspoiled landscape was at risk, for beneath the Hoback lies a highly valued resource: natural gas. For years, industrial-scale gas drilling threatened the Hoback Basin. Specifically, Houston-based Plains Exploration & Production Company (PXP) had plans to drill 136 gas wells and construct 30 miles of new roads at the headwaters of the Hoback River. If approved, it would have been the only instance in the United States of a major gas field at the headwaters of a Congressionally-designated Wild and Scenic river.

Oil and natural gas are important businesses in Wyoming, but even industry veterans agreed the Hoback is too precious to drill—a sentiment that galvanized people from all walks of life to protect this special landscape. The 2009 signing of the Wyoming Range Legacy Act protected the Wyoming Range from future energy development, but it exempted preexisting leases and opened the door for drilling across 58,000 acres of PXP’s leases in the Hoback.

Success for Wyoming

Thanks to an unprecedented show of local and national support, the future of the Hoback is no longer at risk. In just 90 days, The Trust for Public Land and our partners raised $8.75 million to purchase PXP’s 58,000 acres of oil and gas leases and permanently protect the Hoback from future drilling. The purchase means that one of the most important wildlife habitats in the lower 48 states—for elk, moose, mule deer, antelope and dozens of other species—will remain intact and for future generations to enjoy.

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Cross-country skiing on Red Top Mountain in the Wyoming Range
Credit: Tom Turiano
Snow-covered peaks of the Wyoming Range
Credit: Tom Mangelsen
Snowy patches dot the Wyoming Range foothills
Credit: Tom Mangelsen
View of Upper Hoback Basin from the South Rim, across the proposed drilling site
Credit: Stephanie Kessler
A buck deer roams the Pinedale Anticline Natural Gas Field in the Wyoming Range
Credit: Linda Baker
The Hoback River near the confluence with Granite Creek
Credit: Scott Bosse
A cowboy leads pack horses in the Hoback Basin
Credit: Dan Smitherman