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DENVER - As Colorado's remaining wild lands continue to be threatened by oil and gas drilling and encroaching development, Chief Deputy Whip Diana DeGette (D- CO) today reintroduced the Colorado Wilderness Act of 2007.  Joining Rep. DeGette at her press conference was Tresi Houpt, Garfield County Commissioner and member of the State Oil and Gas Commission, David Getches, Dean of the University of Colorado School of Law, Paul D’Elia from Patagonia Denver, and representatives and citizens from the Colorado conservation community.

Below are U.S. Rep. DeGette’s remarks as prepared for delivery:

“I am proud to be before you today to announce the reintroduction of the Colorado Wilderness Act of 2007.   Since 1999 I have had the privilege of introducing legislation to protect wilderness quality public land across Colorado.  However, since that time, our state has seen many of our states special places and wilderness areas put under pressure and in threat of being lost forever. 

“That is why I am proud to announce my intention today to reintroduce an updated, revamped, and sweeping proposal to protect 62 separate areas across Colorado making up nearly 1.65 million acres of Coloradans’ public land as wilderness.

“I am pleased to be here with many advocates of wilderness in Colorado, including Garfield County Commissioner Tresi Houpt,  David Getches, Dean of the University of Colorado School of Law and Raphael J. Moses Professor of Natural Resources Law,  Paul D’Elia of the Patagonia Corporation, as well as a number of conservation groups from across Colorado under the umbrella of the Colorado Wilderness Network, who for years have been the backbone and on the frontlines of defending wilderness in Colorado.  Thank you for joining me today.

“We are gathered here to put protecting our public land literally back on the map.   Colorado’s tremendous beauty and landscapes are always in the forefront of every Coloradan.  It comes as no surprise then that in a recent poll 70 % of Coloradans supported more wilderness and wildlands in Colorado.  Indeed Democrats, Republicans, Western Slope and Front Range residents alike support protecting our public lands.  

“The poll showed that Coloradans support balance in our public lands management but we also want to protect the special areas of this State.  Most of all, we want to leave what is special about Colorado for future generations.

“Colorado and our wilderness are at crossroads.   In the last 7 years our State’s public lands have faced an onslaught like it has never seen from the Bush Administration, particularly on lands managed by the Bureau of Land Management.   Over 85,000 acres of wilderness quality public lands have already been leased for oil and gas drilling in Colorado and more are offered up every day.

“Drilling rigs, new roads, pipelines, more well pads, more noise, and more dust has tarnished our landscapes, impacted our communities, and disrupted sensitive wildlife. 

“While there is room for energy development and leasing on our public lands, with over 80% of land available for oil and gas leasing, I think some of our most beautiful and sensitive areas should be off limits.  This development is being allowed to encroach into our wildlands - removing from consideration many areas deserving of wilderness protection.

“I cannot stand by as a fourth generation Coloradan and let every last acre of our state be sold to the highest bidder in the latest lease sale.

“It is time to stand up for what makes Colorado special, for what brings thousands of tourists here year round providing consistent and long term benefits to our economy and communities.  It is time to protect the sanctuaries our wildlife and endangered species depend on and to preserve for our children the Colorado we see and love today for future generations.  It is time to protect the wild places of our state once and for all.

“I recognize the Colorado Wilderness Act is an ambitious proposal.  However, it is my view that piece-mealing wilderness in this State, acre by acre, is a limited proposition and one which could delay the preservation of thousands of acres of public lands for an interminable amount of time.

“While individual areas may be easier to pass in the short term, the Colorado Wilderness Act in its totality is not as formidable as may seem -  at 1.65 million acres the Colorado Wilderness Act makes up 1/8 of total Bureau of Land Management public land and only seven percent of total public land in our State.  It consists of over 800,000 acres already managed by the BLM as wilderness study areas.  Furthermore, the Colorado Wilderness Act of 2007 is a carefully researched proposal with its wilderness qualities and boundaries established using sophisticated geographic information systems and double checked on the ground by dedicated citizen volunteers. 

“I also understand that wilderness and our public lands do not remain in an unchanging vacuum. I have made several changes to this legislation including adjusting boundaries for ongoing energy development and activities, but also adding several thousand acres of new areas which have been discovered and advocated by citizen volunteers since my original introduction in 1999.

“I am also happy to announce a significant compromise in this legislation.  In Colorado we have a saying, “Whisky is for drinking and water is for fighting.”  For too long the issue of water rights has been an unnecessary impediment to wilderness preservation in Colorado.  In recognition of the importance of water and water rights in our state and in light of our recent drought and increased demands on water supplies, I have rewritten the water language in this bill to ensure the federal government plays by the State of Colorado’s water laws and regulations. 

“Professor Getches will expound on this later.  But this major change to my bill shows that I am committed to listening to all sides interested in public lands and wilderness issues in Colorado and open to reasonable changes and adjustments.   As the wilderness debate moves forward, my promise to listen to all sides will stand and I look forward to an ongoing dialogue about wilderness in Colorado.

“Preserving wilderness in Colorado has always been hard - it brings a clash of interests and different philosophical views to a head.  However, as President Kennedy, in our quest to land on the moon stated we choose to do such things “not because they are easy, but because they are hard, because that goal will serve to organize and measure the best of our skills and talents.” 

“In our State’s history whenever we have chosen to preserve our limited special places, the process was always hard, but we rarely looked back in regret and often wondered why we did not do it sooner. More often then not it, establishing wilderness brought out the best in our leaders and the citizens of our great State.

“In closing I would like to leave you with a quote from one of the true wilderness leaders, former Senator Frank Church of Idaho who in talking about the Wilderness Act stated:

‘The great purpose is to set aside a reasonable part of the vanishing wilderness, to make certain that generations of Americans yet unborn will know what it is to experience life on undeveloped, unoccupied land in the same form and character as the Creator fashioned it... It is a great spiritual experience. I never knew a man who took a bedroll into an Idaho mountainside and slept there under a star-studded summer sky who felt self-important that next morning. Unless we preserve some opportunity for future generations to have the same experience, we shall have dishonored our trust.’

“It is my goal and for those standing with me today, to preserve a small part of Colorado to honor the trust of future generations and to let our children’s children experience the Colorado we love and cherish today.”

For maps and detailed descriptions of the Colorado Wilderness Act please link to: http://canyoncountrywilderness.org

Below are the areas that would be protected under U.S. Rep. DeGette’s Wilderness Act:


 
Proposed Wilderness Area    Acreage      
            
Adobe Badlands                10,742      
Badger Creek            25,229      
Bangs Canyon    21,110      
Beaver Creek    38,378      
Big Ridge    24,887      
Bitter Creek    3,021      
Black Mountain - Windy Gulch    22,439      
Browns Canyon    20,025      
Bull Canyon    16,781      
Bull Gulch    15,155      
Castle Peak    16,263      
Cold Spring Mountain    50,536      
Cow Ridge    15,721      
Cross Canyon    25,947      
Cross Mountain    18,057      
Deep Creek    20,843      
Demaree Canyon    25,881      
Diamond Breaks    34,009      
Dinosaur Additions    63,469      
Dolores River Canyon    41,133      
Dominguez Canyons    84,410      
Dominguez North    12,449      
Dragon Canyon    6,748      
Flat Tops Addition    16,427      
Grand Hogback    11,701      
Granite Creek    14,089      
Grape Creek    44,372      
Handies Peak    72,397      
Hunter Canyon    32,126      
Kings Canyon    9,398      
Little Bookcliffs    30,557      
Mares Tail    4,809      
Maroon Bells    316      
Maverick    20,585      
McIntyre Hills    17,318      
McKenna Peak    33,467      
Norwood Canyon    13,288      
Oil Spring Mountain    25,005      
Pinyon Ridge    20,903      
Pisgah Mountain    15,679      
Platte River Addn    33      
Powderhorn Addition    3,306      
Prairie Canyon    18,687      
Redcloud Peak    38,594      
Rio Grande    10,863      
Roan Plateau    40,494      
Roubideau    22,604      
S Shale Ridge    27,569      
Sagebrush Pillows    5,143      
San Luis Hills    23,536      
Sewemup Mesa    65,448      
Skull Creek    30,735      
Snaggletooth    32,050      
Table Mountain    27,888      
The Palisade    26,914      
Thompson Creek    25,285      
Troublesome    119,676      
Unaweep    39,392      
Vermillion Basin    86,569      
Weber-Menefee Mountain    14,598      
West Elk Addition    6,878      
Yampa River    12,436      
            
Totals    1,674,368