Since 2016, Colorado has observed the third Saturday in May as Public Lands Day, honoring the role public lands play in the state’s identity, economy and quality of life. In a state where more than 22 million acres are publicly owned, the connection is obvious. Public lands are where families hunt, fish, hike, camp, ski, ride horses, mountain bike, drive OHVs, graze cattle and find solitude. They are also where rural economies survive.
But this year’s celebration arrived amid a steady barrage of threats from the Trump administration and congressional Republicans aimed at weakening protections, undermining balanced management and reviving efforts to privatize or sell public lands across the West.
On May 11, the administration rescinded the Bureau of Land Management’s Public Lands Rule, which had placed conservation on equal footing with grazing, recreation and energy development. The move adds to a broader rollback of public lands and environmental protections, including efforts to weaken the National Environmental Policy Act and Clean Water Act protections, expand mining near the Boundary Waters and Chaco Canyon, and reduce staffing across federal land management agencies.
Now, congressional Republicans are targeting Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument through the Congressional Review Act, seeking to overturn its management plan and reopen it to energy development. On May 14, more than 150 scientists urged Congress to vote no, warning the move threatens one of the nation’s premier laboratories for paleontology, archaeology and ecological research.
The threat also has a name. Trump’s nomination of former New Mexico Congressman Steve Pearce to lead the BLM – the agency that manages 245 million acres of federal public land – advanced in the Senate 46-45 on May 11. Pearce has spent his career backing efforts to transfer, sell or otherwise dispose of federal public lands. Putting him in charge of the BLM is not stewardship. It is predation.
That is why one bright spot deserves attention right now.
Colorado Sen. Michael Bennet's newly introduced Public Lands Integrity Act (Herald, May 1) would close the loophole that nearly allowed public lands to be sold through the federal budget reconciliation process with only a simple majority vote.
Rep. Jeff Hurd and other Western Republicans who publicly opposed last year’s proposed sell-offs now have an opportunity to prove those statements were more than rhetoric. House members are reportedly developing a companion bill and seeking bipartisan support, and Hurd should sign on.
The proposal should not be controversial – public lands are not a partisan possession. They are part of the shared inheritance of the American West. Ranchers rely on grazing allotments. Hunters and anglers depend on habitat protections. Rural communities depend on tourism, recreation and the quality of life that public lands provide.
Outdoor recreation alone contributes $13.9 billion annually to Colorado’s GDP and supports 130,000 direct jobs. Ninety-two percent of Colorado residents participate each year. By direct economic measures, agriculture and extractive industries are smaller contributors – but the real value of agriculture runs deeper.
Working ranches and farms preserve open space, maintain wildlife corridors and protect the viewsheds and landscapes that define Colorado’s identity and fuel its outdoor economy. Tip that balance toward extraction and you change the landscape – and undermine the very economy those recreation numbers celebrate.
La Plata County has long been ahead of the curve. Commissioners approved a resolution supporting continued federal ownership of public lands in 2015. The following year, Colorado became the first state to designate a Public Lands Day. In April 2025, La Plata County became the first county in the nation to reaffirm that commitment, noting that 42% of the county is federally managed land.
Commissioner Marsha Porter-Norton put the issue plainly: “This is the American way of life. And it’s being threatened.”
Colorado Public Lands Day is more than a celebration of scenery. It is a reminder that stewardship requires vigilance. Public lands remain one of the few democratic ideas left in American life: places owned equally by everyone, regardless of wealth or politics.
Public lands are part of Colorado’s economy, heritage and identity. They deserve more than symbolic praise one Saturday each May. They deserve protection.
