Issues

We work to advance conservation issues that the National Sierra Club and the Colorado Sierra Club advocate, as well as our own regional issues. Here are some current ones, followed by more information in order, and their links:

*"Productive Public Lands Act" needs letters.

*Protect America's Roadless Areas

*Encourage AG Phil Weiser to stop the Uintah Basin RR Project 

*Support the Voluntary Grazing Permit Retirement Act

*Wild For Good

*The Roan Plateau needs your help.

*Tell Congress Endangered Species need habitat!

*Colorado's Wildlife is Under Threat - Initiative 302 is on the ballot.

 

"Productive Public Lands Act" HR 1997,

 

Congressman Hurd has introduced a bill: "Productive Public Lands Act", HR1997 that would nullify several Biden-era resource management plans and replace them with Trump-era alternatives. This action is intended to "lift" or reverse restrictions on public lands. 

This bill would affect several areas across the West including Colorado, specifically the Grand Junction and Colorado River Valley Field Offices.
 
Much time, expertise and collaboration went into the RMPs in the areas in Colorado. The public was able to comment, industry was able to comment and five plans were put together by the Bureau of Land Management for the final comments. Alternative F was the most desired plan which protected watersheds, views, animal corridors and more while allowing oil and gas development in certain areas.  The town of Palisade voted for alternative F. Now, Rep. Hurd wants to erase the will of the people and the work of the BLM. He wants to erase Democracy. 
 
Please call or email Con. Jeff Hurd's office and say you oppose his bill HR 1997. Unfortunately, there are six Republican co-sponsors on this bill. If you want to write a letter to the editor it may help to get this out to the public. 
 
Grand Junction office: (970) 208-0455
Wash. DC: (202) 225-4676
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 
 
 
 

*Protect America's Roadless Areas

 
 

Together, we successfully beat back a disastrous proposal to sell off millions of acres of public lands. But the fight isn’t over – now, 45 million acres of National Forest lands could lose protections afforded by the Roadless Rule. 

We need your help – tell the USDA to protect roadless areas.  

What happened? The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) has published a Notice of Intent (NOI), beginning the process to rescind the 2001 Roadless Area Conservation Rule and potentially open our roadless public lands up to harmful development, industrial-scale logging, and increased wildfire risk. The NOI triggers a 21-day comment period and it’s up to us to tell the USDA to protect our public lands.  

NOTE: The Colorado Roadless Rule is not included in the current rulemaking. But we still need Coloradans to take action! While Colorado’s roadless protections will, for now, remain intact, quality fish and wildlife habitat on public lands throughout the country are under threat. So please, use your voice and follow the links below!  

Why does the roadless rule matter? Roadless areas provide some of the best fish and wildlife habitat and hunting and angling opportunities for Americans of all walks of life, as well as some of the last strongholds for native trout and salmon. In fact, 70% of public land within roadless areas is home to native trout and salmon. This includes cutthroat trout in the Rockies, brook trout in Appalachia, and salmon and steelhead in the Pacific Northwest. 

How can I help? Click here to submit your comment to the USDA. It only takes 2 minutes and your voice makes a big difference for our public lands.  

Thank you for standing up for public lands. 

Sophia Kaelke 

Protection Campaign Center Manager 

Trout Unlimited 

 

 

 

 

*Encourage AG Weiser to join lawsuit to stop the Unita Basin Railway "Carbon Bomb" Project

 

Please help encourage Colorado's Attorney General to join 15 other states in a lawsuit against Trump's violations of the Environmental Species Act.  We also call on AG Weiser to join the suit against Trump's imaginary "energy emergency" executive order that is being used to fast-track oil and gas, mining and other climate killing projects across the country.  Weiser is making his decision now, so please send the one-click email below.

Send One-Click Email

We believe that AG Weiser can multiply his effectiveness by joining with other states to aggressively fight these projects.  If successful, these lawsuits could stop the Uinta Basin Railway project and the related Wildcat Loadout Facility proposals that threaten Colorado's communities.  Read more details below:

Background: As you know, the Uinta Basin Railway scheme would route up to 10 trains per day carrying heated railcars full of waxy crude oil through treacherous Glenwood Canyon and Denver... along the Colorado River... over high mountain passes... and amongst our tinder-dry forests... to refineries on the Gulf.  The high likelihood of derailments, spills into the Colorado River, and wildfires is too great a risk for Colorado's drinking water sources, communities, agriculture and tourist economies.


Constructing 88 new miles of railway (at a cost of $1.5 Billion) and re-activating dormant stretches will do permanent damage to 10,000 acres of land designated wilderness/roadless, blast 3 new tunnels, affect 400 streams and disrupt endangered wildlife habitat.  The alternative "work around" project called the Wildcat Loadout Facility is just as bad: it uses public funding to enable 260 oil-filled tanker trucks (per day!) to drive a mountainous, fire-prone, 2-lane road.  

The current Wildcat Loadout Facility sits on public land and has a long history of blatant violations - being out of compliance with state and federal air quality rules for the last 6 years. Inspectors have found that the facility has been illegally releasing at least 40 tons of VOCs per year (probably since it was built) and they admit that the actual amount is likely much higher - yet no fines have been levied and no equipment fixes have been made.

Whichever method transports the Uinta Basin oil to gulf coast refineries (either via a new UBR rail or via truck at Wildcat) - it will result in 4 times the current amount of tar sands crude oil reaching markets, resulting in increased oil production, drilling ~3330 new wells, and more oil use.  This obviously contributes to more climate disasters - just when we need to stop using fossil fuels.  Let's do everything we can to stop this huge "climate bomb!"

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Urge your U.S. House rep to co-sponsor and pass the Voluntary Grazing Permit Retirement Act

Wilderness Watch applauds Representative Adam Smith of Washington State for reintroducing the Voluntary Grazing Permit Retirement Act (VGPRA). The legislation will expand the successful model of voluntary federal livestock grazing permit retirement across the western U.S., including in Wilderness. Wilderness Watch has supported similar legislation in previous Congresses.

Incredibly, permitted livestock grazing is authorized on over 200 million acres of federal public lands, including on over 13 million acres of the 52 million acres of protected Wilderness in the lower 48 states. Taxpayers heavily subsidize privately-owned livestock to trample and eat native vegetation on public lands as ranching corporations pay just $1.35 per month for the privilege of grazing a cow and her calf, or five sheep, on our public lands, including in Wilderness.

Wilderness Watch strongly supports the VGPRA as it offers a solution toward ending livestock damage in Wilderness. This bill will work to bolster protection of public lands and Wilderness areas, allotment-by-allotment, fairly and permanently.

Please urge your representative to co-sponsor and pass this critical piece of legislation to protect Wilderness and its wildlife.

Specifically, the VGPRA:

  • Authorizes ranchers in 16 Western states to voluntarily waive federal grazing permits or leases with the intent to permanently end livestock grazing on an allotment, including those in Wilderness.
  • Ensures that any retired allotment cannot be re-leased for new grazing permits.
  • Helps restore wildlife corridors, protect water quality, and reduce the costs of administering grazing programs.

Livestock grazing damages Wilderness and our public lands in a number of ways—including harming water quality, spreading invasive weeds, trampling riparian vegetation, and displacing wildlife.

Yet at 0.1 percent of all forage fed to livestock in the United States, grazing in Wilderness hardly contributes to the U.S. livestock industry. However, due to the grazing language in the 1964 Wilderness Act and its 1980s-era corollary, the Congressional Grazing Guidelines, livestock grazing has been occurring in otherwise undomesticated Wilderness areas for over half a century.

Domestic cattle and sheep grazing are fundamentally at odds with the ideals of the Wilderness Act. Livestock grazing in Wilderness creates conflict with native species, including bighorn sheep, grizzly bears, wolves, sage-grouse, fish, amphibians, and rare plants. Livestock grazing also contributes to a “de-wilding” of the landscape for visitors, many of whom head to Wilderness areas to escape reminders of human influence.

Representative Smith’s VGPRA stands in stark contrast to current administrative and legislative efforts to stock every vacant allotment—including in Wilderness—with livestock or increase grazing by reducing environmental review.

Please speak up for Wilderness and wildlife today by urging your representative to co-sponsor and pass the Voluntary Grazing Permit Retirement Act (H.R.5785)!

TAKE ACTION
 
 
 

 

*Wild For Good

Read The Report

Wild for Good is a call to action and, we hope, an inspiration for you to join us in work that future generations will thank us for. We highlight 10 landscapes that Wilderness Workshop is invested in for the long haul. They are places where we explore nature with our friends and families, float boats in the summer, and backcountry ski in the winter. They provide critical wildlife habitat and connectivity corridors, and safeguard ecosystems that are necessary for climate resilience. And they may be lost to us forever if we don’t rally for their protection.

There are many, many more lands in our region that must also be protected and conserved so that we have a vibrant wildlands network to sustain our human and natural communities – ranging from roadless areas to working lands. These 10 priority landscapes are anchors in that network, places we’ve identified as deserving of and needing durable protections to support the ecological vitality of the whole region. By creating and sustaining thriving ecosystems in our neck of the woods, we in turn sustain and contribute to healthier natural systems across the state of Colorado and the West.

Please join us in this important work. Together, our community can keep our treasured public lands and waters…Wild for Good.

 
 
Wild for Good: Together We Can Protect What We Love
Download the Report

 

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Urgent: Right to Hunt Amendment Hits Ballot: Block the Lock Now

Donate To Prairie Protection

 

Warning: Special Interests Just Pushed 302 Onto the Ballot

 

 

URGENT ALERT: Colorado’s Wildlife Is Under Threat: Initiative 302 Is On the Ballot


Friends,

Trappers and trophy hunters just turned in 180,000 signatures. The so-called “Right to Hunt & Trap” amendment will be on the November ballot.

This is not a symbolic measure. It would lock hunting and trapping as the constitutionally preferred method of wildlife management in Colorado. It would make it dramatically harder, and in many cases nearly impossible, to pass or defend future protections for our wildlife.

What This Means for Colorado:

  • Lawsuits at taxpayers expense that will bring back spring bear hunts and cruel traps & snares for bobcats, beavers, and other "furbearers"
  • Would negate any petition submitted to the CPW Commissioners to stop prairie dog hunts, end the commercialization of wildlife fur, ban lead bullets, and put peer review science ahead of hunting and trapping
  • Locks out future voters, biologists, and science-based protections in favor of trophy hunting special interests

They call it a “lock” for a reason. It locks in outdated, cruel practices and locks out the ability of Coloradans to protect our wildlife when we need to.

Out-of-state groups like the Safari Club and the International Order of the Theodore Roosevelt are pouring millions into this effort. They want to make sure their priorities, hounds, baits, traps, come before science, public input, or basic ethics.

We cannot let this happen.

This is one of the most important fights for Colorado’s wildlife in a generation. The “lock” is real and we have to Block the Lock before it’s too late.

 

It’s Time to Stand Up Together

While some of the big national organizations are treating this fight like business as usual, issuing statements, holding meetings, and moving on, the reality is far more dire. Unless we come together in a fierce, grassroots effort, the wildlife of this state will lose forever.

This is not a drill. Initiative 302 would rewrite the rules of the game in the state constitution, making it exponentially harder to defend the protections we’ve already won and nearly impossible to win new ones. The big orgs may have staff and budgets, but they don’t have the fire on the ground that Coloradans do.

This fight belongs to us, the hunters who care about ethical management, the hikers who love seeing wildlife, the parents who want their kids to inherit a wild Colorado, and everyone who believes science and compassion should guide our decisions, not special interests.

The time for polite concern is over. We need boots on the pavement, relentless social media pressure, phone calls, letters, donations, and unwavering commitment.

Take Action Today — Every Person Counts

1. Donate to the fight
Every dollar goes directly toward defeating this amendment.
Donate securely here →

2. Join our Action Team
Get alerts, weekly tasks, and ways to plug in (pavement pounding, social media amplification, calls, events, and more).
Sign up for the Action Group here →

3. Spread the word

4. Follow Protect Colorado's Constitution on Facebook, check out their website,  and volunteer for this effort here.  Share this newsletter. Talk to your neighbors. This only loses if good people stay silent.

The “lock” is real and we have to Block the Lock before it’s too late.

Sign Up For Our Action Group Here

Together, we can turn the tide. Colorado's wildlife, and all future generations, are counting on us.