First they came for the mule deer. Then they came for the black-footed ferrets. Now the Bureau of Land Management is coming for the fun-loving residents of Craig, Colorado.

The skyrocketing number of oil and gas wells throughout the Rocky Mountain West is beginning to create strange alliances among property rights activists and

Snubbing its Senate counterparts, the U.S. House of Representatives voted last night to drop from its version of the federal budget bill a provision to open the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to oil drilling. The Senate had recently approved a draft of the bill with the ANWR drilling provision, dealing a crushing blow to environmentalists and Senate Democrats who have been tirelessly fighting for years to keep the refuge off-limits to oil companies. Proponents of drilling argue that the U.S. needs the oil and that environmental impacts would be minimal. Opponents say the amount of oil is questionable, that drilling will be expensive and catastrophic to the environment, that preserving one of America's last wild places is critical, and that energy conservation and investment in alternative energy sources should take precedence over drilling in the wildlife refuge. The House bill does nothing to preclude the possibility of opening the refuge down the line, but it deals a rare win to Congressional Democrats and the environmental community.