Environmental activists yesterday called on Colorado lawmakers to support legislation that would grant new wilderness protection to more than 1,894,000 acres of Colorado wildlands.
Meanwhile, opposing groups say that some of the proposed wilderness protection legislation would hurt Colorado's economy at the worst possible time.
The conservationists' "Call to Action" yesterday came on the heels of a month-long campaign urging support for three wilderness initiatives, including Colorado Democrat U.S. Rep. John Salazar's controversial Hidden Gems wilderness proposal. Hidden Gems would protect more than 400,000 acres in the White RiverNational Forest from timber production, oil and gas production, and all mechanized travel. Environment Colorado and other activist groups yesterday delivered approximately 13,700 comments supporting Hidden Gems and other wilderness protection initiatives to U.S. Sens. Mark Udall and Michael Bennet, both Colorado Democrats.
"We need to think big and be big when it comes to new wilderness protections," said Suzanne Jones, Central Rockies Regional Director of The Wilderness Society. "This is the most conservation-minded Congress we've had in decades. Our senators and representatives should join together and make new wilderness protection a priority for the sake for our state and future generations."
While proponents of Hidden Gems say the proposal would protect valuable public land in Eagle, Pitkin, Summit and Gunnison counties, opponents claim the wildlife designation - which would forbid such things as mountain biking, four-wheeling and snowmobiling - would take a large bite into the state's $1 billion-a-year motorized recreation tourism industry.
"You're pretty much taking towns that have already suffered through economic downturns...and now you're asking them to lose the only industry they have left, which in many cases is tourism and recreation," said Janelle Kukuk, president of the Colorado Snowmobile Association. "They have done nothing to take into consideration the economic viability of these small towns."
However, supporters of Hidden Gems and the other similarly minded conservation proposals that would protect land in the San Juan Mountains and parts of northwest Colorado say designating the 1,894,000 acres as wilderness would positively affect the tourism industry in the long term. Bill Dvorak, who runs a company that operates rafting in several current wilderness areas, says the wildlife protection would help businesses like his for years to come.
"Wilderness protection means Colorado's great outdoors are open for business," he said. "Wilderness attracts people from instate and across the nation to those landscapes. New wilderness protections mean new jobs and a growing outdoor recreation industry."
More than 10 organizations and businesses participated in yesterday's "Call to Action" event. Among the featured speakers was Aron Ralston, a mountain climber who garnered national attention after cutting off his own arm with a pocketknife after his appendage got stuck under a boulder. Ralston said that just as the courage to think boldly is what got him free and kept him alive, Colorado lawmakers and the community should show similar courage and determination by passing the conservation legislation.
The environmentalists' most recent campaign coincides with the 25th anniversary of when President Lyndon Johnson signed the original Wilderness Act. Yesterday's event attempted to bring attention back to the conservation movement, which in recent months has taken a backseat to many other pressing issues.
"While health care and energy are making the front page, there's a growing grassroots movement to support new wilderness protection in Colorado," said Matt Garrington of Environment Colorado. "Coloradans want to see our public lands stay the way they are, and new wilderness protection is the best way to protect our land, water, and wildlife."
