WASHINGTON – Colorado Sens. Michael Bennet and John Hickenlooper testified in support of two land protection bills Wednesday before a U.S. Senate subcommittee.
The senators spoke in favor of the Colorado Outdoor and Recreation and Economy Act and the Dolores River National Conservation Area and Special Management Area Act. Combined, they would provide protections for more than 500,000 acres of land in Colorado.
Bennet rallied in support for the CORE Act, an act he reintroduced into Congress in May, which would protect more than 420,000 acres of public land in Colorado. Within the 420,000 acres that would be protected under the bill, 71,000 acres would be allocated for new wilderness and about 80,000 acres would be reserved for new recreation and conservation management areas.
The bill seeks to protect lands that would mostly be designated national conservation areas overseen by the Bureau of Land Management. A smaller portion of the protected lands would be designated as a special management area by the U.S. Forest Service.
The areas will be protected by the BLM and the USFS, respectively, to protect fish habitat and recreation. Developments such as new mining claims would be prohibited, however uses such as grazing, which already exist, would not be affected through the bills.
The CORE Act has struggled to pass the Senate after passing the House of Representatives five times in the past.
“Coloradans of all stripes have been working on the CORE Act for over a decade to conserve over 420,000 acres of public lands in Colorado,” Bennet said at the hearing.
Both Bennet and Hickenlooper are sponsors of the Dolores River National Conservation Area and Special Management Area Act, a bill created through 15 years of collaboration and discussion between governments and interest groups located in Southwest Colorado. The bill has seen strong support from local county governments, the Ute Mountain Ute Tribe, the Southwestern Water Conservation District, and conservation and outdoor recreation groups.
This bill specifically would protect more than 68,000 acres of public land along the Dolores River shared in Montezuma, Dolores and San Miguel counties.
“The broadly supported solutions in this bill offer a perfect example of Coloradans from across various interests and across parties coming together to share, the word I always used to use is topophilia – a love of place – that really helps make our state and so much of the West so beautiful,” Hickenlooper told subcommittee members at the hearing.
The Dolores River bill was reintroduced in March after the 117th Congress failed to vote on the bill.
U.S. Rep. Lauren Boebert has sponsored an identical Dolores River bill in the House. The bill is co-signed by Colorado Reps. Ken Buck and Doug Lamborn.
While the Dolores River conservation bill has garnered bipartisan support from Colorado lawmakers, the CORE Act lacks the same support from Republican lawmakers in the Senate.
“Coloradans crafted these bills on kitchen tables and at trailheads across our state,” Bennet said. “The bills were written in Colorado, not in Washington, and they reflect thoughtful, bipartisan collaboration among tribes, county commissioners, businesses, ranchers, sportsmen and conservationists.”
Mina Allen is an intern for The Durango Herald and The Journal in Cortez and a student at American University in Washington, D.C. She can be reached at mallen@durangoherald.com.
