Sponsors (2)
The bill substantially expands permanent conservation and recreational protections in Colorado—benefiting wildlife, recreation, and local tourism—while trading off reduced resource development and motorized access, potential local economic and tax impacts, and new federal implementation costs.
Residents, recreationists, and local communities gain permanent protection of roughly 123,000 acres through new wilderness designations, wildlife conservation areas, and a 50,300‑acre National Recreation Area, preserving scenic, recreational, and wildlife habitat.
Local businesses, visitors, and working lands see existing outdoor uses largely preserved (boating, hunting, fishing, grazing, established events) and increased public access (easements), supporting local recreation economies.
Local communities benefit from authorities to conduct wildfire, insect, and disease treatments and limited administrative motorized access, enabling faster management to protect watersheds, infrastructure, and public safety.
Communities and businesses near the designated areas lose access to mineral leasing, mining, and geothermal development, reducing potential resource development, local jobs, and future tax/royalty revenue.
Restrictions on timber harvests, roads, motorized use, and new road construction will limit some local resource industry activity and motorized recreation, affecting jobs, recreation options, and local businesses that rely on those activities.
Federal acquisition of private or State lands, and easement purchases required by the bill, can reduce local property tax bases and impose costs on federal budgets—creating fiscal impacts for local governments and taxpayers.
Based on analysis of 10 sections of legislative text.
Designates multiple new Colorado wilderness and special management areas, withdraws the Thompson Divide from new mineral development while authorizing a methane-capture pilot, and establishes the Curecanti National Recreation Area.
Introduced February 27, 2025 by Michael F. Bennet · Last progress February 27, 2025
Designates multiple new wilderness areas and special management areas across federal lands in Colorado, withdraws a defined Thompson Divide area from new mineral leasing and other appropriation laws while creating a pilot program to capture fugitive methane from certain coal mines, and establishes the Curecanti National Recreation Area. It assigns management responsibilities to the Secretary of Agriculture for new wilderness and special management areas and to the Secretary of the Interior for withdrawals and the new recreation area, preserves certain existing reclamation and water project authorities, and incorporates detailed maps and acreages into federal law.