Sponsors (2)
Introduced February 27, 2025 by Michael F. Bennet · Last progress February 27, 2025
The bill secures substantial new conservation and recreation protections and some tools for wildfire management and emissions reduction in Colorado, but does so by restricting extractive uses, limiting certain access and land uses, and imposing administrative and fiscal costs on local economies, landowners, agencies, and taxpayers.
Rural communities, visitors, and local governments gain roughly 100,000+ acres of new long‑term protection (wilderness, Special Management Areas, a National Recreation Area, and withdrawals), preserving recreation, scenery, and public access across multiple landscapes.
Wildlife and outdoor‑dependent economies benefit from conserved migration corridors and habitat protections (e.g., Porcupine Gulch, Thompson Divide), supporting biodiversity and tourism/recreation income.
Nearby communities and watersheds receive authority for active forest management (hazardous fuels, insect and disease treatments) in designated areas, enabling faster hazardous‑fuels treatments to reduce wildfire risk and protect water supplies.
Rural communities, workers in extractive industries, and taxpayers face broad limits on mineral, geothermal, oil/gas, and mining development across many newly withdrawn or designated federal lands, reducing potential local jobs and tax revenues.
Local governments and taxpayers may incur costs from federal land acquisitions, transfers, and lost resource revenues, and communities could face fiscal impacts from reduced development activity.
Recreationists, rural users, and local governments will see restrictions on motorized access and prohibitions on permanent roads in several designations (Wildlife Conservation Areas, SMAs, parts of the NRA), limiting vehicle/bicycle access except on designated routes.
Based on analysis of 10 sections of legislative text.
Adds multiple Colorado wilderness units and special management areas, creates a Thompson Divide mineral-withdrawal pilot to limit leasing and reduce fugitive methane, and establishes the Curecanti National Recreation Area with mapped boundaries.
Designates multiple new wilderness areas and wilderness additions in Colorado, creates two special management areas, establishes a pilot mineral-withdrawal program for the Thompson Divide to limit new oil and gas leasing and address fugitive methane, and creates the Curecanti National Recreation Area with mapped boundaries and a timeline for transfer of administrative jurisdiction. The bill sets management rules for those lands (including wildfire/insect control and continuation of existing grazing where allowed), preserves valid existing rights, and directs interagency coordination and map-based administration.