Drive any direction from downtown Durango, and you find public land within minutes. The San Juan Mountains surround us – the foundation of our economy, our identity and the lives we've built. Each of us is a joint owner of that land, and that ownership makes our life in the Mountain West possible. Now it’s under direct attack.
Last year, Sen. Mike Lee of Utah nearly used the budget reconciliation process to force the sale of millions of acres of national public lands across the West. It was defeated because we pushed back – including in Durango, where residents took to the streets, and the City Council passed a resolution to keep public lands in public hands. Some Republicans joined Democrats in opposition, and the Senate parliamentarian struck the provision out of the bill. That victory was also a warning: under current Senate rules, this can be tried again and again, and we may not always win.
That's why Sen. Michael Bennet’s Public Lands Integrity Act matters. Introduced April 30, it closes the loophole for good by barring the sale of America’s public lands through Congress’ fast-tracked budget reconciliation process.
As Bennet put it: “Congress must never use fast-tracked Senate procedure to sell Americans’ public lands to fund short-term partisan spending. Not now, not ever.”
Our public lands are not numbers on a ledger to balance a budget or finance a tax cut.
The sell-off isn't the only threat. While developers eye the map for trophy homes, the agencies that steward our forests have been hollowed out. A recent analysis found that Colorado lost 1,753 federal public-lands positions in 2025 – a 26% cut, the largest in the nation.
This summer we may pay the price. Colorado’s snowpack was the worst on record this spring, and conditions are stacking up for a brutal wildfire season – and the Forest Service is heading into it short-handed. Anyone who has lived through smoke-filled summers knows “staffing cuts” is not an inside-Washington phrase. It means fewer people clearing fuels and preparing for wildfire – and less of the logistical backbone that supports the firefighters who come to Durango to keep fire at bay. Many of the lost staff members were the “red-carded” workers who run logistics at fire camps. Rep. Joe Neguse's Public Lands Workforce Stability Act (H.R. 8523) aims to stop these shortsighted reductions.
Durango has been here before. When oil and gas leasing threatened Perins Peak during the George W. Bush administration, this community did the hard work – residents, water leaders, sportsmen, conservationists, mountain bikers, businesses and elected officials. Bennet and Republican Rep. Scott Tipton carried it into Congress, including a provision in the Hermosa Creek Watershed Protection Act banning federal oil and gas leasing around Perins Peak, Animas Mountain, Horse Gulch and Lake Nighthorse. That bill also stripped the BLM’s authority to dispose of or transfer those lands without an Act of Congress. When some proposed transferring BLM land to the city or county, both refused – knowing it could set a precedent for an avalanche of public-land loss, especially alongside Rep. Jason Chaffetz of Utah’s then-pending bill to dispose of 3 million acres.
Now we need the same result: close the budget loophole that could one day lead to the sale of our public lands. Durango is awake again. Residents have protested. La Plata County and the city of Durango have taken formal stands. We understand that once these places are sold, fragmented, understaffed or neglected, we don’t get them back.
Congressman Jeff Hurd understands this threat. He was the lone Republican on the House Natural Resources Committee to vote against the sell-off, and we thank him for that leadership. He should carry that principle forward by supporting Sen. Bennet’s Public Lands Integrity Act and Rep. Neguse’s Public Lands Workforce Stability Act.
Public lands are our home, our economy, our identity, our wildlife habitat and our children’s inheritance. We defended them once. We must defend them again – and we need a new era of bipartisan leadership from Colorado to prevail in Washington. We need Rep. Hurd to stand with us.
Mayor Dave Woodruff is assistant general manager of Zia Taqueria & Cantina and a longtime leader in Durango’s restaurant and hospitality community. A Durango resident since 2005, he has served with the Colorado Restaurant Association, Visit Durango and La Plata County’s COVID-19 Economic Recovery Task Force, and was recognized with statewide and local leadership awards for his advocacy on behalf of restaurants and small businesses.
