A government agency broke the speed of light Tuesday - bureaucratically speaking. In a flash, the Bureau of Land Management discovered its nerve endings work in something faster than geologic time.

The stove was searing. Sportsmen, conservation groups and Granby residents were outraged by BLM's plans to lease 31,000 acres in Grand County, including land around Hot Sulphur Springs, to gas drillers.

Last week, the agency fielded a volcanic eruption of protests over plans to develop prime elk and deer wintering habitat at the headwaters of the Colorado River. In less than a week, BLM actually heard the shouting and flinched. It withdrew all of Grand County from a lease sale scheduled for Thursday.

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