I wanted to express my thanks to state Sen. Ellen Roberts for writing in the Herald on the value of collaborating across the aisle to ensure the will and values of Coloradans are reflected in our laws. One issue on which the vast majority of Coloradans agree – more than 72 percent, according to the recent State of the Rockies poll – is that our national public lands are crucial to both our way of life and our economy here in Colorado and should stay open to the public.
Unfortunately, though, we’ve recently seen bills introduced in state houses across the West that seek to wrest control of national public lands and potentially sell them off to private development. One version of these bills already has been introduced into the Colorado state Senate (SB39), and I wouldn’t be surprised if more followed.
As an outdoor educator based in Durango, I personally have seen the transformative value of these landscapes, and I can’t imagine what it would do to our community if we were to lose access to places like the San Juans or our recently protected Hermosa Creek. Our national public lands are a place to escape from the anxieties of everyday life and find a calm and quiet that’s not readily available in our world anymore. Locking us out of these lands would be a huge hit to our quality of life here and to businesses in our region that rely on access to open space to stay afloat.
So, I urge Sen. Roberts to keep standing up for the majority of people in the Southwest – and across Colorado – that support and love our public lands, by publicly opposing any of these land-grab bills.
Katy Howell
Durango
