This fall marks the 10th anniversary of the passage of the Hermosa Creek Watershed Protection Act. The legislation, enacted in December, 2014, ensured lasting protection of the conservation values across 108,000 acres that comprise the Hermosa Creek watershed, a backyard beloved by many in Durango and beyond. The legislation prohibited future mineral or energy development and new road construction, and also set aside the watershed’s western portion as a wilderness area.
Also noteworthy on the 10th anniversary of the Hermosa legislation is that it marks the last time that Congress provided enhanced conservation protection for any area in Colorado. The 10-year drought is not for lack of opportunities, but a reflection of the gridlock that characterizes much of Congress.
The root cause for lack of Congressional activity around land conservation traces to the Senate’s filibuster, its own arcane rule that requires a minimum of 60 votes among the 100 senators to advance legislation. As conservation has become more politically polarized, progress has suffered because the closely divided Senate is unable to ever muster 60 votes on individual land conservation bills.
As we near the end of the Congressional session this year, there is discussion about a public lands package that groups together a collection of bills sponsored by either Democrats or Republicans into a single omnibus piece of legislation. Such an approach succeeds occasionally, but for the last decade, no bills relevant to areas in Colorado have been enacted.
Most locally relevant is the long-standing Colorado Outdoor Recreation and Economy Act. It includes conservation protections for areas in the San Juan Mountains, such as expanding the Mount Sneffels Wilderness to include the entirety of the Sneffels Range. Currently, just a fraction of Mount Sneffels itself is within the wilderness area. The iconic north face of Mount Sneffels that graces so many Colorado scenic calendars is not included in the wilderness at present, nor is the common climbing route to the summit.
The Mount Sneffels Wilderness expansion, along with providing legislative designation to the Ice Lake Basin area that would preclude any new mining or road construction, was first introduced to Congress in 2009 as a stand-alone bill for the San Juan Mountains. It was later packaged together with similar legislation for areas around Breckenridge and Vail, and the Thompson Divide area near Carbondale, into the current CORE Act.
Similarly, a bill to designate as wilderness areas administered by the Bureau of Land Management has been pending for over 20 years. The Colorado Wilderness Act brings wilderness protection to canyons and mesas across the Western Slope, as well as finally designating as wilderness the three 14,000-foot peaks managed by BLM near Lake City. The bill passed the House of Representatives several times in recent years, but has been stymied by the Senate’s 60-vote rule.
Additionally, a bill to establish the Dolores River National Conservation Area was introduced in 2022 after at least 15 years of local stakeholder engagement. It too is stuck in legislative limbo, despite sponsorship by both Democrats and Republicans.
Colorado’s senators recently introduced yet another conservation bill, the so-called Gunnison Outdoor Resources Protection Act with the clever acronym “GORP.” It expands the Uncompahgre and West Elk wildernesses and creates a raft of new conservation designations for areas around Gunnison County, and also is the result of years of stakeholder outreach.
With the 10th anniversary of the successful Hermosa Creek Watershed Protection Act soon upon us, will Congress finally act on this growing backlog of conservation bills that address land protection for two-million acres across Colorado? We’ll soon find out.
Mark Pearson is Executive Director of San Juan Citizens Alliance. Reach him at mark@sanjuancitizens.org.
