Conservation Lands Foundation Thanks Bureau of Land Management For Protecting Public Lands in Western Colorado, And More Is Needed
Grand Junction, CO - Today, the Bureau of Land Management released its final plan for how it will manage two million acres of public lands in western Colorado covered by its Colorado River Valley and Grand Junction Field Offices. The plan culminates a decades-long planning process and multiple legal challenges that directed BLM to analyze the climate impacts of new oil and gas leasing and protect other public lands values such as wildlife habitat, recreation, and wilderness.
The BLM’s proposed plan uses various existing tools, including additional protections to more than 50,000 acres of wilderness quality lands. The plan also includes the designation of two additional Areas of Critical Environmental Concern (ACECs), a step back from the draft version which considered conservation protections for many more ACECs, and opens approximately 860,000 acres of the land to fossil fuel development, which signifies 30% more lands open to leasing than the preferred alternative from the previous version.
The Conservation Lands Foundation’s mission is to protect public lands managed by the BLM and the following is a statement from Ben Katz, Colorado-based Associate Program Director at Conservation Lands Foundation:
“This plan is a good example of how BLM can protect critical landscapes across public lands. We appreciate the BLM for finalizing a plan that protects some of Colorado’s most important wildlife habitat, critical water resources, and Indigenous cultural sites through new and expanded conservation designations, though emphasizing fossil fuel development across the landscape when more action on climate is necessary misses the mark.”
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Conservation Lands Foundation published this page in Latest News 2024-06-20 19:14:44 -0600
