Second Regular Session
Sixty-first General Assembly
LLS NO. R980934.01 BWM
STATE OF COLORADO
BY REPRESENTATIVES Smith, K. Alexander, Dyer, Entz, George, S. Johnson, Miller, Reeser, Schauer, Taylor, and Young;
also SENATORS Ament, Bishop, Chlouber, Dennis, Hopper, and Wattenberg.
AGR., LIVESTOCK & NATURAL
RESOURCES
HOUSE JOINT RESOLUTION 98-1039
WHEREAS, In 1997, the United States Bureau of Land
Management (BLM) initiated in Colorado a wilderness reinventory
of public lands beginning in western Colorado and including lands
in Moffat, Mesa, Rio Blanco, Garfield, Montrose, Eagle, Delta,
Fremont, Teller, El Paso, Chaffee, Montezuma, Hinsdale, Pitkin,
San Miguel, Dolores, Conejos, and Gunnison counties; and
WHEREAS, To date, six areas in western Colorado have
been reinventoried by the BLM for roadless or wilderness designation
potential and are being managed to protect the potential, but
not necessarily identified, wilderness values as the review process
proceeds; and
WHEREAS, By managing lands as de facto wilderness
areas, the BLM has determined to hold oil and gas leasing in abeyance
and to limit other discretionary multiple uses on such lands until
Congress determines whether the areas qualify for wilderness designation
under the federal "Wilderness Act"; and
WHEREAS, Numerous questions have been raised regarding
the BLM's authority to reinventory these lands for wilderness
designation, and what, if any, meaningful public review has or
will occur; and
WHEREAS, All Colorado BLM lands were reviewed under
the initial wilderness study process as directed under the wilderness
provisions of Section 603 of the federal "Land Policy Management
Act" (FLPMA) and officially completed in November 1980, and
after numerous opportunities for public input and comment, including
public hearings, over 800,000 acres were designated Wilderness
Study Areas, only then to be managed as wilderness under the interim
wilderness management guidelines, with 400,000 acres subsequently
recommended to the President for designation as wilderness; and
WHEREAS, Under Section 603 of FLPMA, the BLM completed
the wilderness study and made its recommendations to the President
in 1991 and the President submitted his recommendations for wilderness
to Congress in 1993; and
WHEREAS, The lands currently selected for wilderness
reinventory in 1997 were rejected by the BLM in the 1980's as
not meeting wilderness criteria; and
WHEREAS, The BLM appears to be reinterpreting its
roadless criteria in order to increase the amount of land eligible
for consideration for wilderness designation by reevaluating approximately
one million acres of land even though such land did not previously
meet wilderness criteria and no significant new information has
been presented to the BLM on these land issues; and
WHEREAS, The BLM is continuing to reinventory such
lands prematurely before Congress has acted on the President's
recommendations; and
WHEREAS, The BLM is holding in abeyance multiple
use activities on lands included as part of the reinventory resulting
in detrimental economic impacts to the citizens of Colorado; now,
therefore,
Be It Resolved by the House of Representatives
of the Sixtyfirst General Assembly of the State of Colorado,
the Senate concurring herein:
That we, the members of the Colorado General Assembly,
hereby request:
(1) That BLM lands continue to be managed
to allow for multiple uses in accordance with existing resource
management plans until such time as plan amendments have been
lawfully adopted; and
(2) That the United States Congress place
a moratorium on any further funding to the BLM for the purpose
of carrying out such roadless or wilderness reinventories until
Congress acts on the President's 1993 recommendations.
Be It Further Resolved, That copies of this Joint Resolution be transmitted to the President of the United States, the United States Secretary of the Interior, the Director of the United States Bureau of Land Management, the President of the United States Senate, the Speaker of the United States House of Representatives, and to each member of Colorado's delegation in the United States Congress.