Public Lands
Our public lands should be managed by a multiple use model that balances conservation, recreation, and responsible resource utilization. Colorado's forests are one of our greatest resources but overgrowth makes forests susceptible to disease and wildfire. Congress must take all necessary steps to protect our forests and our watersheds on public lands from epidemic and catastrophic wildfires.
More on Public Lands
(Washington, D.C.) On October 21, U.S. Representative Mike Coffman (R-CO) sent a letter to the President pressing him to increase funding for the Western Watershed Enhancement Partnership in his Fiscal Year 2016 Budget Request.
The standoff at the Bundy Ranch in Nevada was just the tip of the iceberg—and it is a very large iceberg indeed. All over the West, the federal government is planning to take over millions of acres of land—and kick the humans off.
A case in New Mexico going on this month but attracting almost no attention, pits rancher Kit Laney against the U.S. Forest Service. The service claims Laney’s Diamond Bar Ranch in southwest New Mexico is federal land; Laney can show that his rights go back to 1883—before there was a State of New Mexico and before there was a Forest Service (1905).
Colorado's U.S. Senator Mark Udall, a strong voice for proactively reducing wildfire risk throughout Colorado, led a bipartisan and bicameral letter pressing the U.S. Department of Agriculture to partner with the timber industry to reduce wildfire risks in fire-prone areas, create jobs and improve community safety throughout the Rocky Mountain West.