Gunnison Outdoor Resources Protection Act of 2025

Summary

Converts about 19,080 acres of Ute Mountain Ute Tribe fee land into trust for the Tribe and designates large swaths of federal land in Gunnison County (with portions in Saguache and Delta Counties) into a network of management classifications—Special Management Areas, Wildlife Conservation Areas, Protection Areas, Recreation Management Areas, a Scientific Research and Education Area, and multiple wilderness additions. The Act withdraws or restricts mineral leasing and new road construction in many of these areas, limits off-highway vehicle (OHV) and bicycle uses to designated routes, requires habitat and wet-meadow restoration in specified places, preserves State fish and wildlife jurisdiction and grazing authorities, and places express no-gaming language on land taken into trust. The law also requires maps and legal descriptions to be filed with Congressional committees (and made publicly available), authorizes collaborative vegetation and fuels management (with restrictions on commercial timber harvest), allows tribal ceremonial uses and traditional plant collection, and provides specific oil-and-gas withdrawal/no-surface-occupancy protections for mapped Federal lands in Delta County while preserving valid existing rights. Several trail projects and existing permits are preserved or allowed to proceed where consistent with applicable law.

• Takes ~19,080 acres of Ute Mountain Ute Tribe fee land into trust and bars any gaming on that land under federal law.
• Designates multiple federal lands in Gunnison County (and parts of Saguache and Delta Counties) as Special Management Areas, Wildlife Conservation Areas, Protection Areas, Recreation Management Areas, a Scientific Research and Education Area, and multiple wilderness additions.
• Withdraws many designated areas, subject to valid existing rights, from public land entry, mining location/patent laws, and mineral and geothermal leasing laws; imposes an oil-and-gas withdrawal and no-surface-occupancy on specific Delta County lands.
• Restricts new road construction in covered areas, limits OHV and bicycle use to routes designated as of enactment (with limited exceptions), and requires decommissioning of temporary roads after vegetation projects.
• Requires wet-meadow and riparian restoration in specified areas and mandates seasonal closures for OHV/bicycle use in six areas to protect wildlife and habitat.
• Requires maps and legal descriptions be filed with Congressional committees and makes them legally binding (allowing typographical corrections) and publicly available.
• Authorizes collaborative vegetation treatments and prescribed fire while generally prohibiting commercial timber harvests in covered areas.
• Creates a ~12,250-acre scientific research area to support natural-science research and education with use limits focused on research purposes.
• Preserves State fish and wildlife jurisdiction, grazing authorities, treaty and tribal ceremonial/traditional-use rights (subject to applicable law), and certain preexisting trail/permit developments where consistent with law.
• Sets implementation deadlines (e.g., trust conversion and surveys within 1 year; winter travel plans within 3 years) but does not itself appropriate new funds.