{"id":46773,"date":"2021-05-15T11:00:00","date_gmt":"2021-05-15T17:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/hickenlooper-floats-animas-river-in-durango-to-mark-public-lands-day\/"},"modified":"2026-03-31T03:34:21","modified_gmt":"2026-03-31T09:34:21","slug":"hickenlooper-floats-animas-river-in-durango-to-mark-public-lands-day","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/hickenlooper-floats-animas-river-in-durango-to-mark-public-lands-day\/","title":{"rendered":"Hickenlooper floats Animas River in Durango to mark Public Lands Day"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

\"Sen.
Sen. John Hickenlooper, center, floats the Animas River in Durango on Friday with local conservation and business leaders to celebrate public lands. (Terrance Siemon\/BCI Media)<\/span>Terrance Siemon\/BCI Media<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

Sen. John Hickenlooper took a hands-on approach to meeting with Durango locals about outdoors issues Friday: hopping on a whitewater dory and floating the Animas River.<\/p>\n

The Colorado senator\u2019s visit to Durango and other Southwest Colorado communities was, in part, to celebrate Colorado Public Lands Day, signed into law by Hickenlooper in 2016. But with more than 15 conservation and outdoors business representatives in tow, the conversation quickly turned to key concerns and priorities for Colorado\u2019s public lands.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnything I should know before I get into the boat?\u201d Hickenlooper said as the dory and two rafts prepared to launch from Oxbow Park.<\/p>\n

\u201cAre your affairs in order?\u201d came a jest from the crowd.<\/p>\n

\"Sen.
Sen. John Hickenlooper met with representatives Friday from 4Corners Riversports, Tailwind Nutrition, Durango Outdoor Exchange, Pine Needle Mountaineering, the Durango Mesa Park Foundation, The Wilderness Society, San Juan Citizens Alliance, Trout Unlimited and Great Old Broads for Wilderness. (Terrance Siemon\/BCI Media)<\/span>Terrance Siemon\/BCI Media<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

As the three boats floated down the river toward 29th Street, several people asked about progress on the Colorado Outdoor Recreation and Economy Act. The four-part bill aims to protect 400,000 acres of public land and sustainable recreation activities.<\/p>\n

In the San Juan Mountains, it would provide permanent protections for almost 61,000 acres of land and designate more than 21,000 acres around Sheep Mountain, between Ophir and Silverton, as the Sheep Mountain Special Management Area, the headwaters of the Animas River.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think it\u2019s got a real good shot of passing,\u201d Hickenlooper said. \u201cThe really immediate issues of climate change, health care, COVID and the economic recovery \u2013 these have such a fierce sense of urgency, there\u2019s a possibility that they will push the CORE Act off till next year. \u2026 I\u2019m going to do everything I can not to let that happen.\u201d<\/p>\n

Great Old Broads for Wilderness offered grassroots support and collaboration to help get the bill passed. Ty Churchwell with Trout Unlimited and Jeff Wider with The Wilderness Society in Durango said their organizations support the bill.<\/p>\n

\"Sen.
Sen. John Hickenlooper co-sponsored the Colorado Outdoor Recreation and Economy Act, which would protect 400,000 acres of public land in Colorado. (Terrance Siemon\/BCI Media)<\/span>Terrance Siemon\/BCI Media<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

Business representatives emphasized the importance of public lands to Colorado\u2019s economy. Outdoor recreation generates about $28 billion in consumer spending and each year about 13.6 million people visit Colorado\u2019s state parks, according to Colorado Parks and Wildlife.<\/p>\n

But they said communities need help scaling up to match growth in the outdoor industry. That could mean federal assistance with community infrastructure, whether it\u2019s reducing water and sewer infrastructure costs or increasing electric vehicle use.<\/p>\n

It could also mean managing increased use of public spaces. In 2020, Southwest Colorado saw a dramatic rise in visitors \u2013 and damage \u2013 to its public lands. Off-trail ATVs damaged fragile alpine tundra and local trails were strewn with litter.<\/p>\n

\u201cAre we going to love our public lands to death? There\u2019s clearly a risk,\u201d Hickenlooper said. \u201cI think the federal government\u2019s job is to talk to local communities and say, \u2018What is your perception of maximum capacity?\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

\"After
After meeting with local conservation and outdoor business representatives on a boat ride down the Animas River on Friday, Sen. John Hickenlooper was impressed with the widespread, bipartisan commitment to public lands. (Terrance Siemon\/BCI Media)<\/span>Terrance Siemon\/BCI Media<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

Marcel Gaztambide, Animas riverkeeper with San Juan Citizens Alliance, said he wanted Animas headwaters management to be based on science-informed policy. Forest health, river health, water quality and recreation all intersect. Those connections need to be considered by policymakers, he said.<\/p>\n

Moira Compton, executive director of the Durango Mesa Park Foundation, said all of Colorado needed to be represented in state-level groups like the Great Outdoors Colorado committee, which she said was starting to have more Front Range representation.<\/p>\n

\u201cI will investigate. The one thing I have learned in my four months as a senator is that somehow my voice has gotten louder,\u201d Hickenlooper said. \u201cIt\u2019s a good thing if I make sure it goes in the right direction.\u201d<\/p>\n

Before heading off to lunch, a trip to Cortez, and likely some beer at Carver Brewing Co. or Ska Brewing Co. before he leaves the area, Hickenlooper said his main takeaway from the group discussion was the commitment to public lands.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere is a widespread, bipartisan commitment to public lands and the long-term economic benefit is sustainable, with that caveat that you don\u2019t want to love our lands to death,\u201d Hickenlooper said.<\/p>\n

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

Conservationists, business leaders list key concerns and priorities<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":46774,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[1030,481,28,976,265],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-46773","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-environment","tag-gov-john-hickenlooper","tag-headlines","tag-outdoor-recreation","tag-politics"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46773","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=46773"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46773\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":87023,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46773\/revisions\/87023"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/46774"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=46773"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=46773"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=46773"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=46773"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}