By: Christine Canaly, Director
Date: February 21, 2025
San Luis Valley Ecosystem Council
There is a well-orchestrated scheme to sell off America’s public lands; it started over a decade
ago by reducing the public lands workforce by 25%; a “starve the beast” mindset that includes no federal employee replacement and introduction of “part time seasonal temporaries”; which undermines the necessity for institutional memory; critical for the sustained management of public lands. This seasonal approach creates fragmentation in decision making, and also lacks accountability; so it should be of no surprise that these public policy decisions are strategically purposeful.
REMOVE
When you add that background with the recent across the board funding freezes/firings that the President has mandated through Executive actions; directed at every government level, including our public lands agencies, it’s clear to see the impact this will have on national treasures like the Great Sand Dunes, Rocky Mountain National Park, Black Canyon and Mesa Verde; and further understanding unfolds to reveal that there is a larger insidious agenda at play.
Most recently, Interior Secretary Doug Burgum issued secretarial orders that will gut regulatory protections of America’s beloved and ecologically valuable and connected national landscapes, many located in Colorado; to be replaced with fossil fuel and other mineral extractive leasing.
ACQUIRE
The Bureau of Land Management (BLM) has just issued their quarterly oil and gas leasing
nominations for Colorado and they are offering up 51,000 acres; (61 parcels-almost 80 square miles); in northern and western Colorado. As a point of comparison, in September, there were 13 parcels issued totaling about 12,000 aces.
The facts are that oil production in the U.S. is currently higher than it’s ever been–and oil and
gas corporations are reaping in record profits–and there are already millions of acres of federal land currently leased and waiting to be explored and developed. It's crystal clear that these recent orders have nothing to do with the nation’s energy portfolio. These bandits are hell bent on acquiring public lands to inflate their own private portfolios to attract investors and other potential global markets.
SELL-OFF
Couple that with the new rules just passed by the House of Representatives that includes
language allowing lawmakers to more easily sell off public lands managed by agencies like the Bureau of Land Management, National Park Service and U.S. Forest Service.
Under the rules, lawmakers will no longer need to account for “lost revenues” from nationally
managed public lands if they decide to give those lands away to states or other interests. The
Congressional Budget Office, which provides lawmakers with data so they can make budget
decisions, will effectively have to now consider public lands to have no monetary value, making wholesale sell-off of lands much simpler. (Can you imagine our public lands, rich in natural resources that also maintain water quality, soil & carbon sequestration, wildlife, having no value?)
It gets worse. The Interior Department has just completed a 15-day internal review of national monuments and all protected public lands that have been withdrawn from fossil fuel and mining development. They are manufacturing a sham energy crisis as the reason to illegally privatize and sell off our country’s precious public lands to the highest bidder, and doing so under the cover of darkness, with zero public input.
OUR PUBLIC LEGACY
In a recent poll conducted by Colorado College’, called the State of the Rockies Project, now in its 15th year; a whopping 92% of Coloradans believe that “existing national monument designations from the last decade should be kept in place”, and this opinion is represented by bi-partisan constituents.
Another 70 %, said that they “oppose giving state government control over national public lands, such as national forests, national monuments, and national wildlife refuges.” This same percentage also believes that they “support only allowing oil and gas companies the right to drill in areas where there is high likelihood to actually produce oil and gas.”
America’s public lands are our most treasured legacy and asset. We deserve this legacy to be passed down for future generations to enjoy. So why is the current Administration and congress systematically finding ways to block access for regular Americans, who enjoy hiking, camping, horseback riding, hunting, and fishing? In two words, private profit.
THE ECONOMY
Just in the San Luis Valley (SLV) alone, $41.3 million is being spent annually in local gateway
towns, like Alamosa and Crestone/Moffat/Hooper/Mosca/Blanca/Ft.Garland, while visiting the Great Sand Dunes National Park and Preserve; supporting 536 jobs with $17 million in labor income and $29.1 million in added value revenue. The total economic impact in 2021 topped 2020 by nearly $12 million and was the largest in the past 10 years, per data from the NPS accounting office. The Great Sand Dunes has become an economic anchor and driver for the entire SLV.
Colorado's outdoor recreation industry accounted for 125,244 jobs in 2021, or 4.3% of total
employment. The outdoor recreation industry employs more than 6 times as many people as the oil and gas industry does in this state and generates 11 billion annually. In 2021, there were 125,244 jobs in the outdoor sector, compared to the 19,871 jobs in the oil and gas sector.
Americans broadly oppose attacks to our clean air, clean water, and ways of life. Politicians and their billionaire advisors do not have a mandate to sell off our outdoor access or our beloved national treasures - our monuments, parks, and public lands - to corporate polluters.
The American public, through our tax dollars, deserve our public lands to be managed by a
knowledgeable, robust federal on-the-ground devoted workforce that can provide safety, valuable education and orientation for visitors; co-manage the land with ranchers, and also do regular monitoring for natural resource oversight and protection. The American public has financially invested in the management of these lands for over 100 years; self-interest and grotesque exploitation have no place at the table.
What to do?
Contact our recently elected Congressman Jeff Hurd, who seems to be going along with this
charade. Tell him he does not represent the extraction industries, he’s there to represent Colorado Conservation. See next article.
Contact Senator Bennet and Hickenlooper offices, thank them, and let them know you expect
them to continue to be a champion for Conservation.
Contact Jeff Hurd, 3rd
Congressional District
1641 Longworth House Office Building
Washington, DC 20515
Phone: (202) 225-4676
743 Horizon Court
Suite 112
Grand Junction, CO 81506
Phone: (970) 208-0455
503 N Main St
Pueblo, CO 81003
Phone: (719) 696-6968
835 E 2nd Ave
Durango, CO 81301
Phone: (970) 317-6167
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