Sponsors (2)
The bill protects large river and gorge landscapes and clarifies federal management—securing recreation, ecosystem, and water-project certainty and tribal rights—while imposing new limits on development, resource uses, and private land activities that could reduce local economic opportunities and create regulatory costs.
Residents, visitors, and recreation businesses in southwest Colorado gain long-term protected access to large stretches of the Dolores River corridor and Ponderosa Gorge (tens of thousands of acres), preserving recreation, scenery, and tourism opportunities.
Local communities, water users, and utilities retain certainty because existing water project operations and contracts (e.g., McPhee Reservoir/Dolores Project) are preserved and federal oversight of water projects is maintained.
Tribal nations and holders of treaty/settlement water rights retain their existing rights and uses because the bill explicitly preserves those rights in management plans.
Local workers, businesses, and counties face reduced economic opportunities because mining, leasing, commercial timber harvesting, and other resource development are limited or withdrawn on affected lands.
Private landowners, ranchers, grazing permit holders, and developers incur new restrictions, permitting hurdles, or lost uses (including limits on water diversions/storage) that can raise costs and create regulatory uncertainty.
Communities and conservation stakeholders lose the option of future Wild and Scenic River designation (and the associated pathway to additional protections and funding) for the covered areas, reducing potential future federal support.
Based on analysis of 10 sections of legislative text.
Introduced May 15, 2025 by Michael F. Bennet · Last progress May 15, 2025
Creates a new Dolores River National Conservation Area (about 52,872 acres of BLM land) and a Dolores River Special Management Area (about 15,452 acres in the San Juan National Forest), directs federal land managers to prepare management plans and an advisory council, and sets rules to protect native fish, recreation, cultural, scenic, and other natural resources. The bill withdraws covered lands from many public‑land and mineral uses (subject to valid existing rights), limits motorized use and new road construction, preserves existing water and tribal rights and operations of McPhee Reservoir, and restricts federal assistance for new or modified water projects that would harm resource values. It also removes the covered river segments from further Wild and Scenic Rivers consideration.