Sponsors (2)
The bill secures extensive conservation, recreation, tribal land, and wildfire‑resilience protections across many acres—boosting ecological, recreational, and scientific values—while significantly restricting extractive uses and motorized recreation and imposing administrative and fiscal costs that could reduce local economic opportunities and create legal/management burdens.
Rural communities, visitors, and local governments gain large new and expanded Wilderness and specially managed areas (roughly tens of thousands of acres across multiple sections) that conserve scenery, wildlife, watersheds, and recreation opportunities.
Residents and nearby towns get improved wildfire resilience and forest-health actions (authorized hazardous fuels treatments, prescribed fire emphasis, and insect/disease controls) that reduce wildfire and pest risk to communities and infrastructure.
Local businesses and outdoor economies stand to benefit from preserved scenic and recreational lands plus provisions enabling trail development and recreation management areas that can increase tourism and related spending.
Local communities, governments, and energy/mineral industries lose access to large areas for mining, oil and gas leasing, geothermal leasing, and some timber harvests due to withdrawals and designations, reducing potential jobs, local revenue, and development opportunities.
Motorized recreationists, some cyclists, and businesses that depend on dispersed OHV and motorized visitors lose access or face route limits across many protected areas, reducing recreational choices and local visitor-driven economic activity.
Taking land into trust and withdrawing lands from development can reduce county and local tax revenues and federal royalty streams, potentially straining local services and budgets.
Based on analysis of 11 sections of legislative text.
Places ~19,080 acres of Ute Mountain Ute Tribe land into trust (no federal gaming), creates multiple conservation/recreation/research designations and wilderness additions in Gunnison County, and withdraws some Delta County lands from oil and gas leasing.
Introduced May 15, 2025 by Jeff Hurd · Last progress May 15, 2025
Requires the federal government to take about 19,080 acres of Ute Mountain Ute Tribe fee land into trust for the Tribe (subject to existing rights) and bars that land from federal gaming. Creates a suite of land protections and management rules in Gunnison County, Colorado—designating Special Management Areas, Wildlife Conservation Areas, Protection Areas, Recreation Management Areas, a Scientific Research & Education Area, and multiple wilderness additions—and withdraws specified Delta County lands from oil and gas leasing and surface occupancy. The bill sets rules for permitted uses (including limits on OHV and bicycle use), requires collaborative planning and management standards, preserves certain trail and public-access possibilities, and directs agency mapping, surveys, and other administrative actions with timed deadlines for some tasks.