Colorado’s cherished wild landscapes are something to celebrate but nothing to take for granted.
We will lose them if we don’t act boldly to protect both the land and the wildlife that depends upon them from our relentless impacts.
Fortunately, just such a plan has been proposed that would play a vital role in preserving our wild values: the Colorado Outdoor Recreation and Economy Act.
Co-sponsored by Sen. Michael Bennet and Rep. Joe Neguse, CORE is the most significant and broadly supported effort to protect Colorado’s most cherished landscapes in a generation. This legislation would provide for over 400,000 acres of public lands protections, including 73,000 acres of new wilderness. CORE also expands a number of existing wilderness areas, creates special wildlife management and recreation areas and bestows long-sought National Historic Landscape designation for Camp Hale, where the famed 10th Mountain Division trained to fight in World War II.
Each of the places named in the CORE Act has been part of previous conservation efforts, and has been given wide support by county commissions, municipalities, businesses, sportsmen’s groups and conservation organizations.
On Sept. 12, Bennet sent a letter to Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources Chairman Lisa Murkowski and Ranking Member Joe Manchin to request a hearing on his proposal. “The CORE Act enjoys the full support of seven affected counties, many cities and towns, local leaders, and a wide range of stakeholders – from mountain bikers to ranchers, and hikers to hunters,” wrote Bennet.
“For these reasons, Coloradans are eager for the Senate to consider this bill.”
How great would it be if Bennet’s colleague, Sen. Cory Gardner, would support CORE? Gardner has characteristically taken no stand, and is unlikely to get behind any public land management designation that excludes oil and gas and ATVs. Sequestered among his like-minded supporters, I’m not sure Gardner even realizes how out-of-step he is with most citizens in our state.
Wilderness is a hot topic in Colorado right now. In addition to CORE, two other public lands protection bills are currently proposed.
Rep. Diana DeGette has introduced the Colorado Wilderness Act of 2019, to grant permanent wilderness status to more than 740,000 acres of public lands located in 33 areas across the state. DeGette’s carefully considered bill also deserves our strong support, as it would comprehensively compliment the CORE Act by focusing on BLM-managed mid-elevation ecosystems that provide vital winter wildlife habitat and migration corridors.
Rep. Scott Tipton is circulating a draft bill called the Colorado Recreation Enhancement and Conservation Act. It is, in my opinion, a distraction and a sham that would actually remove protections from several long-standing Wilderness Study Areas bordering Mesa Verde National Park and Canyons of the Ancients National Monument.
But why all this sudden attention for wilderness?
Colorado is one of the fastest-growing states in the country, and a magnet for outdoor recreationists from around the world. Spend a summer afternoon within earshot of any mountain road around Silverton to hear the parade of droning ATVs that shatter any semblance of wild serenity or solitude you may have hoped for. Pressures on our public lands, and on the wildlife which lives there, will only continue to increase.
Colorado’s abundant and diverse wildlife are dependent on wilderness areas as undisturbed refuges where they can flourish, spreading out into nearby landscapes and maintaining the character of Colorado so many of us appreciate.
I recently attended an open house meeting in Cortez where DeGette’s proposed wilderness designations were debated. The arguments, both pro and con, kept focusing on the economic benefits, or perceived lack thereof, of wilderness. But this perspective misses a fundamental point.
The value of wilderness is not something to be stuffed in a wallet but to be held much closer inside as a quality of life vital as the blood in our veins. Wilderness is where humanity was born, and it’s where we connect with what keeps us human.
Wilderness is also most decidedly not about us. It’s about the world of other creatures with whom we share the planet – the birds, animals, fish and invertebrates whose presence most enriches our lives – but also has a right to exist independent of whatever values we place on them.
How can we call ourselves good stewards of the Earth if we allow its habitats and inhabitants to continue to vanish one by one? Wilderness areas are like ecological arks that just may allow wild species to weather the long storm of the Anthropocene.
Setting aside areas as wilderness, as “an area of undeveloped federal land retaining its primeval character,” is the wisest investment we can make to ensure that the cherished qualities of wild Colorado continue into the future. If wilderness is a valuable expression of our commitment to the land and its wild creatures today, how priceless will it be in 50 years? In 100 years?
In that not-too-distant future, there will be cultures forever regretting their lost wild landscapes and ecosystems (think Europe today), but some will have had the leaders and people that made wise decisions to conserve their essential nature. Thanks to efforts like the CORE Act, I’m betting that Colorado will be one of these.
Clint McKnight is a former national park ranger and current facilitator of the Public Lands Committee for Indivisible Durango.
