Wilderness Updates
New Wilderness Proposed In Montana
 Senator Jon Tester is asking for public input on legislation on a public land bill that will affect hundreds of thousands of acres in Montana's prized backcountry.
Wilderness activists have applauded the bill's 667,000 acres of new Wilderness as well as the strict limits on snowmobiling and OHV use.
Multiple use interests, including Off Highway Vehicle and snowmobile groups are disappointed the Senator is siding with the Wilderness activists and agency bureaucrats instead of the majority of Montanans who want public lands to remain open for recreation.
Find out what BlueRibbon is saying about the bill here.
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Big Foundation Dollars Behind Wilderness Proposal in Colorado
 I arrived back at the BlueRibbon Coalition office after taking a few days off and found a flurry of emails from Colorado OHV and snowmobile users waiting in my inbox. Among them were numerous forwards of a message originally sent by Sean Martin. Sean is an avid snowmobiler, ATV rider, boater and President of the Mt. Sopris Rec Riders, a snowmobile club out of Carbondale, Colorado.
Sean had recently attended a "Hidden Gems Wilderness" meeting presented by the Wilderness Workshop based in Carbondale, Colorado. Sean's email described the event, and summed up the Workshop's results thusly: A radical, very well funded Wilderness activist group has begun to pressure a congressman (Jared Polis) to introduce the "Hidden Gems," a massive Wilderness bill that would designate an additional 600,000 acres of Wilderness and close world-class snowmobiling, mountain bike and OHV areas across central Colorado.
Sean wrote: "If the Hidden Gems people get what they want, one year from today all of this land will be closed permanently. There is no going back. Wilderness is absolute. Wilderness is forever."
READ MORE HERE
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Colorado Roadless Proposal Being High-Jacked By Wilderness Lobby
New regulations formulated during the Bush Administration allow each State to help formulate management rules for the Inventoried Roadless Areas on National Forest lands within that state. Eager to put an end to the long-running controversy, as well as protect the public from insect outbreak and wildfire, Colorado's Legislature formed the Roadless Areas Review Task Force to make recommendations on how each Roadless Area in Colorado should be managed.
The Task Force spent over a year taking input from all kinds of people and organizations interested. Information regarding devastating wildfire, insect outbreak and concerns over the local economy was considered alongside concerns about protecting the lands. BRC and COHVCO made sure recreational uses were also considered. The Task Force made reasonable recommendations allowing new road building to occur only for the purpose of addressing the wildfire and insect problems.
Visit BRC' s Colorado Roadless Page for more information
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New Wilderness Legislation Introduced for New Mexico
 Senator Bingaman and Senator Udall have introduced legislation to impose federal Wilderness designation on 259,000 acres of lands in Dona Ana and Luna counties, along with 100,850 acres of National Conservation Area. The Organ Mountains-Desert Peaks Wilderness Act (S.1689), was introduced in the Senate on September 17, 2009.
If this legislation is implemented, beneficial use and enjoyment of our public lands will be severely restricted for most of the public. Anyone unable to walk or hike into the areas from the perimeter, or the selected handful of “cherry stemmed” roads, would no longer have access to the areas.
You can read the full text of the legislation here.
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