Colorado Democrats urge Biden to protect public landscapes

Colorado Democrats urged President Biden in a letter on Friday to use his executive powers to preserve the historical legacy of key Rocky Mountain landscapes and ban new oil and gas leasing in certain spaces.

The politicians — Rep. Joe Neguse, Sen. Michael Bennet, Sen. John Hickenlooper and Gov. Jared Polis — asked the president to protect the public spaces included in the Colorado Outdoor Recreation & Economy (CORE) Act, the progress of which has stalled in Congress, despite strong local support.

Chief among their requests is the designation of Colorado’s Camp Hale and the Tenmile Range as the “Camp Hale – Continental Divide National Monument,” by means of the Antiquities Act.

This area, they explained, was instrumental “in preparing the 10th Mountain Division for some of the most difficult moments of World War II,” while many veterans returned to establish Colorado’s outdoor recreation economy.

The politicians also urged the president to protect Colorado’s Thompson Divide through a Federal Lands Policy and Management Act mineral withdrawal, which would ban new oil and gas leasing, as well as mining, in the region.

Farmers, ranchers and other community members have all come together in support of this conservation measure, the politicians noted.

The letter comes after Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack’s recent visit to the region to meet with Colorado stakeholders, who called for urgent administrative actions to protect landscapes included in the CORE Act.

During that visit, Vilsack met with conservationists, sportsmen, ranchers, business leaders and veterans, who demonstrated “overwhelming support” for such protections, according to the letter.

“It is clear that Coloradans across the state support the conservation and preservation of these landscapes for future generations,” the letter stated.

In January 2021, Neguse, Bennet and Hickenlooper reintroduced the CORE Act, which has now passed the House of Representatives five times.

“Despite strong public support, the CORE Act has been held up in the Senate by lawmakers who are dead set against passing any conservation legislation,” Jennifer Rokala, executive director of the Center for Western Priorities environmental group, said in a statement.

“It’s time for President Biden to step in to deliver for the people of Colorado,” Rokala added.

The proposed legislation would designate Camp Hale as a National Historic Landscape, while prohibiting new oil and gas drilling in areas important to sportsmen and ranchers near the Thompson Divide.

Combining four previously introduced Colorado public land bills, the CORE Act also sought to protect 73,000 acres of land as new wilderness and nearly 80,000 acres as new recreation and conservation management areas that maintain existing outdoor uses, such as hiking and biking.

In their letter to the president, Neguse, Hickenlooper, Bennet and Polis likewise called for new protections to the areas proposed for wilderness designation, mineral withdrawal and special management.

Such measures — specifically for Colorado’s Grand Mesa Uncompahgre and Gunnison National Forests — would come with the support of seven Colorado county commissioners, the politicians noted.

In an appeal sent to Bennet last month, the commissioners asked that the senator urge Biden to “safeguard these cherished landscapes as soon as possible.”

The Colorado congressman, senators and governor suggested that the president use administrative tools at his disposal, such as forthcoming revisions to the U.S. Forest Service plan, to accomplish this goal.

“By taking these steps, you will be making sure that even more of Colorado’s open spaces will be preserved for future generations,” the Colorado politicians wrote to Biden.

“We will continue our fight to pass the CORE Act to deliver permanent conservation for the areas featured in the legislation but ask for your help in the interim to offer administrative protections modeled after the CORE Act,” they added.

The Hill has reached out to the White House for comment.

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