{"id":15135,"date":"2025-12-08T21:21:20","date_gmt":"2025-12-09T04:21:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/sen-michael-bennet-says-wilderness-bill-has-support-across-the-political-spectrum\/"},"modified":"2026-03-31T03:45:14","modified_gmt":"2026-03-31T03:45:14","slug":"sen-michael-bennet-says-wilderness-bill-has-support-across-the-political-spectrum","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/sen-michael-bennet-says-wilderness-bill-has-support-across-the-political-spectrum\/","title":{"rendered":"Sen. Michael Bennet says wilderness bill has support \u2018across the political spectrum\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

\"Bennet\"
Bennet<\/span>dur-i-syn<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

WASHINGTON \u2013 Public lands, including the people who play in and draw meaning from them, are central to Colorado\u2019s identity.<\/p>\n

Last week, that sense of place was central to Sen. Michael Bennet\u2019s testimony to the Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources as he advocated for the Colorado Outdoor Recreation and Economy Act, a bill that would protect 400,000 acres of public lands in the state \u2013 with more than 60,000 acres in the San Juan Mountains.<\/p>\n

The CORE Act has passed the House of Representatives three times since it was first introduced in 2019, each with bipartisan support, according to Rep. Joe Neguse\u2019s website<\/a>. It has yet to pass the Senate.<\/p>\n

On Dec. 2, Bennet said the act has the support of seven counties, 17 towns and cities, and fellow Sen. John Hickenlooper. He pointed to more than 50 letters of support from county commissioners, tribal governments, wildlife advocates and environmental groups. The next step for the bill is a markup in committee.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe CORE Act demonstrates Colorado\u2019s approach to protecting public land,\u201d Bennet said during his testimony. \u201cOver the past 15 years, Coloradans negotiated this bill at trail heads and at kitchen tables. County commissioners across the political spectrum, outfitters, ranchers, hunters, anglers and local businesses rolled up their sleeves to find the best way forward to preserve our special places.\u201d<\/p>\n

The act includes the San Juan Mountains Wilderness Act, which would add permanent protections to 61,000 acres of land specifically in Southwest Colorado, according to the legislation\u2019s website.<\/p>\n

That includes 31,725 acres of new wilderness areas near Telluride, Norwood, Ouray and Ridgway; extending the Lizard Head and Mount Sneffels wilderness areas by 23,000 acres; and designating an 8,884-acre wilderness study area surrounding McKenna Peak in San Juan County as an official wilderness. The legislation would also create protections for Nordic skiers on Lizard Head Pass, prohibit oil and mineral extraction on 6,590 acres outside Norwood and designate two new special management areas near Silverton, Ophir and Telluride.<\/p>\n

\"Views
Views of Sheep Mountain from Lizard Head Pass. The proposed San Juan Mountains Wilderness Act, which is part of the Colorado Outdoor Recreation and Economy Act, would extend the wilderness area around the mountain by more than 23,000 acres. (Durango Herald file)<\/span>du1-i-syn<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

San Juan Citizen\u2019s Alliance Executive Director Mark Pearson said the bill, if passed, would protect and expand on some of the most beautiful pieces of wilderness in Colorado, particularly in the southwest corner of the state.<\/p>\n

\u201c(Bennet\u2019s testimony is) encouraging because it demonstrates, I think, the widespread love and appreciation for our mountains from those of us who live in this part of Colorado,\u201d he said. \u201cThere\u2019s unanimous support from local governments in the region here. And you would have hoped that over the last 15 years that this enormous outpouring of support would have been enough to get Congress to act.\u201d<\/p>\n

Pearson wrote and signed one of the letters in support of the CORE Act. He said that originally, the San Juan Mountains Wilderness Act was one of four separate pieces of legislation that were wrapped into a larger public lands bill.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo there\u2019s a little something for everybody in the whole package to try to get enough interest to then make it worthwhile,\u201d Pearson said.<\/p>\n

Pearson said every time the act has passed the House, it has failed to materialize enough support in the Senate. If it can pass the Senate, it will likely be put into a larger package of public lands legislation that would go to President Donald Trump\u2019s desk.<\/p>\n

\"A
A map detailing every new addition to wilderness areas in Southwest Colorado proposed in the Colorado Outdoor Recreation and Economy Act. (Courtesy of San Juan Citizens Alliance)<\/span>cca<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

\u201cI think both our senators have done a great job advocating for the CORE Act and for the San Juan Mountains part as well,\u201d he said. \u201cWe\u2019ll see if we can make better progress this time around.\u201d<\/p>\n

According to the National Park Service,<\/a> wilderness designation provides \u201cthe highest level of protection\u201d for a landscape.<\/p>\n

The Weminuche Wilderness recently celebrated its 50th anniversary<\/a>. Pearson pointed out how in that half-century, countless memories and connections to nature were made that may not have occurred without the wilderness designation.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe fact that wilderness is the strongest level of legislative protection that we have in the United States just makes it the gold star of landscape protection,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

During his testimony, Bennet said things were looking hopeful for the CORE Act. He did, however, implore the Senate to garner the support needed to get it signed into law and put on the president\u2019s desk.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe CORE Act enjoyed bipartisan support from this committee last Congress, and I hope that you will respect the years of work that went into this bill and honor the Coloradans who spent over a decade drafting, refining and pushing for its passage,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

ahatting@durangoherald.com<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

sedmondson@durangoherald.com<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

has passed House of Representatives, needs Senate approval to become law<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":15136,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[1712,28,265,994,25],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-15135","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-forests-and-wilderness","tag-headlines","tag-politics","tag-trueanthem","tag-u-s-sen-michael-bennet"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15135","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=15135"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15135\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":19499,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15135\/revisions\/19499"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/15136"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15135"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=15135"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=15135"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=15135"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}