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The Bureau of Land Management's Little Snake Field Office released Friday its proposed resource management plan and final environmental impact statements.
The plan provides a guideline on how the Little Snake Field Office will seek to manage its 1.3-million acres of public lands and 1.1-million acres of subsurface mineral estate in Moffat, Routt and Rio Blanco counties for about 20 years.
Broad swaths of western land, equivalent to the size of Colorado and Wyoming combined, should be considered "treasured lands" and managed without regard to state lines or other jurisdictional boundaries, according to an internal Bureau of Land Management document.
Parts of the document were made public via a leak earlier this year, when several parcels of land, including many in Colorado, were listed as potential national monuments under a law more than a century old.
U.S. Rep. Jared Polis is leaving the door open to seek wilderness designation for more lands in the Hidden Gems proposal in the future, but for now he is targeting areas where there is a "broad consensus" for protection.
Polis "hopes" to introduce a wilderness bill this fall, he said in a statement. The lands selected for the bill were determined after Polis and his staff held what he labeled extensive public outreach.
Bowen Lake is a remote, secluded mountain treasure in the beautiful Never Summer Wilderness Area, located southeast of Cascade Mountain. It is a boxy, scenic lake flanked by verdant hillsides of grass and wildflowers. Aside from a handful of backpackers who are impelled by a recent (May 2009) article in Backpacker Magazine, few people visit this picturesque destination. The lengthy hike begins in Rocky Mountain National Park (RMNP), but soon enters the Wilderness.
History
Determining the status of public land has arguably been Montana's most intractable political problem over the last half century. Most of the turmoil has centered on wilderness designation in National Forests.
It's tough to visit California's Bodie Hills. Although many travelers turn off U.S. Highway 395 in the Eastern Sierra to see the well-known ghost town of the same name, far fewer venture into its rugged backdrop, which has no paved roads, no marked trails, no developed campgrounds.
"These really are the last remnants of the Wild West," says Stacy Corless, who works for a nonprofit seeking to protect and preserve the hills.
Federal lands are owned by all Americans and managed by federal agencies to, ideally, maximize most of the land's use for a variety of purposes. Some federal land is so valuable for its scenery, archaeological treasures, wildlife habitat and watershed that it should be protected by designation as wilderness.
Elected officials in counties where there is a lot of federal land have legitimate concerns about the public land use limitations that have an impact on the local economy.
The Hidden gems campaign is leading hikes up Quandary Peak and Acorn Creek on Saturday, and Aug. 19 respectively.
The hike up Quandary is 7 miles round-trip, has 3,200 feet of elevation gain, and is a relatively gentle Fourteener. The Acorn Creek hike will be a moderate four- to five-mile ramble through the rolling country on the flanks of the Williams Fork Mountains.
U.S. Congressman Jared Polis, whose sprawling district includes Boulder but also some of the most intensely utilized national forest land in the state, this week released a discussion draft of legislation to create new wilderness areas in Eagle and Summit counties.
Polis said his scaled-down alternative to the massive four-county Hidden Gems proposal has garnered broad consensus and is ready for legislative action.
U.S. Rep. Jared Polis is leaving the door open to seek wilderness designation for more lands in the Hidden Gems proposal in the future, but for now he is targeting areas where there is a "broad consensus" for protection.
Polis issued a statement that said "hopes" to introduce a wilderness bill this fall. The lands selected for the bill were determined after Polis and his staff held what he labeled extensive public outreach.
