Located just 32 miles from Denver, St. Vrain State Park is a popular respite for Coloradans looking to hike, fish or camp along the shores of the park's 14 ponds. But a portion of the 688-acre park may soon be leased for oil and gas development under a provision approved by the Colorado Parks and Wildlife Commission. Photo courtesy of Colorado Parks and Wildlife.

Colorado may soon allow oil and gas drilling inside a state park for only the second time in recent history, a move that would provide critical revenues to offset state budget shortfalls but that worries some advocacy groups that believe parks should be off-limits to such activities.

The 14-member Colorado Parks and Wildlife Commission voted unanimously last week to authorize Parks and Wildlife Director Rick Cables to begin negotiating a lease agreement with Anadarko Petroleum Corp. to drill as many as seven wells from a single 10-acre well pad on the north end of St. Vrain State Park.

The wells, if fully tapped, could generate as much as $500,000 a year in revenue for Colorado Parks and Wildlife -- and the agency desperately needs the money, said Heather Dugan, manager of Colorado Parks and Wildlife's High Plains Region, which oversees parks on the northeast side of the state. Colorado Parks and Wildlife officials must still finalize a surface use agreement that would identify restrictions designed to protect the natural resources inside the 688-acre park 32 miles due north of Denver. Go to story #1