\u201cThe CORE Act enjoys the full support of seven affected counties, many cities and towns, local leaders, and a wide range of stakeholders \u2013 from mountain bikers to ranchers, and hikers to hunters,\u201d Bennet wrote in his hearing request. \u201cFor these reasons, Coloradans are eager for the Senate to consider this bill.\u201d<\/p>\n
Since its introduction, the CORE Act has received statements of support from lawmakers and stakeholders alike, such as Colorado Gov. Jared Polis, and the counties of Summit, San Miguel and others.<\/p>\n
\u201cToday\u2019s CORE Act integrates the legislation into a robust public lands package that will protect the Colorado economy and preserve the Colorado environment for generations to come,\u201d Polis said in a statement.<\/p>\n
Ana Siegel, a resident of Durango, commended the CORE Act as an \u201cincredible opportunity\u201d to set aside protections for outdoor usage in Colorado.<\/p>\n
\u201cMy mind has been completely blown at how much public land there is, and how many accessible trails there are for biking, hiking, kayaking. \u2026 It\u2019s this insane hub for outdoor activity,\u201d Siegel said.<\/p>\n
The counterargument for the CORE Act is that there are limitations on outdoor usage, Siegel said, but coming from a place with limited trails for recreation, \u201cit seems selfish that we wouldn\u2019t want to put further wilderness areas aside to protect just because we want more opportunities to recreate.\u201d<\/p>\n
Pete McKay, San Juan County commissioner, said people in the San Juan Mountains have been working on wilderness and special management bills for more than 12 years, and he sees them as \u201cvital to our economy.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWe are a recreation-based economy, and the idea of giving permanent protections to these special areas is valuable to protect the land and wildlife itself,\u201d McKay said. \u201cIt also gives us the economic certainty that these lands will continue to function as a draw to visitors from Colorado, the U.S. and around the world.\u201d<\/p>\n
McKay said that San Juan County has been working closely with the counties of Ouray and San Miguel over the past few years to achieve and maintain protection of public lands, and each county has received feedback from their businesses, recreation groups and citizens on the topic.<\/p>\n
Some pushback in terms of recreation legislation over the past few years might have had to do with mining interests and certain recreation groups, McKay said, but commissioners and residents were willing to compromise and redraw boundaries until the specifications were generally accepted by everybody.<\/p>\n
McKay also expressed concern with the current administration not reflecting the needs of people on the ground in terms of land and outdoor usage.<\/p>\n
\u201cOur public lands are so valuable to all of us, and I don\u2019t want to see them being sold off or opened up for certain extraction when what we\u2019ve worked on for all these years has really helped these public lands,\u201d McKay said. \u201cSomething like the CORE Act would really help protect even more acreage in Colorado.\u201d<\/p>\n
Ultimately, with the extensive outdoor opportunities that Colorado offers, Siegel said, protecting its lands is generally favorable to Coloradans.<\/p>\n
\u201cAs someone who loves to recreate outside, it\u2019s also my duty to do what I can to protect them,\u201d Siegel said. \u201cThe responsible thing in my mind is to support bills that will continue the conservation of Colorado\u2019s public lands and get more protection for our lands.\u201d<\/p>\n
Ayelet Sheffey is a student at American University in Washington, D.C., and an intern for The Durango Herald. <\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" would protect about 400,000 acres<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":66407,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[21,28,29,25,1566],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-66406","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-cortez","tag-headlines","tag-newsletter","tag-u-s-sen-michael-bennet","tag-u-s-senate"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/66406","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=66406"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/66406\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/66407"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=66406"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=66406"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=66406"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=66406"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}