Colorado’s hunting seasons are in full swing, and while many of us are chasing bugles, glassing high basins, or scouting drainages, the work to protect wild places doesn’t stop. Although it’s unusual these days to find damn near universal public support for anything, in this instance we’re talking Roadless Areas and our great public lands estate.
“The public has spoken and the consensus is overwhelmingly clear,” Outdoor Life News Editor Dac Collins explained. “More than 99 percent of Americans are opposed to the Trump Administration’s plan to ditch the Roadless Rule, which protects some of our most cherished hunting and fishing spots on U.S. National Forest land.” As hunters know from experience, the Roadless Rule protects the best elk habitat in Colorado and the country.
In addition, these lands were never roaded for a reason. They’re often steep, rocky and have marginal timber values. There’s simply no way to build more roads and make timber sales pencil out for the American taxpayer. That’s why Taxpayers for Common Sense (TCS) is one of the biggest supporters of the Roadless Rule. “Repealing the 2001 Roadless Rule risks billions in new taxpayer liabilities from subsidized road construction and money-losing timber sales,” TCS says.
“In the end, this is not just a fight over land—it’s a fight over meaning,” Frank DeSantis wrote in the Backcountry Journal. “What kind of country to we want to be? One defined by private interest, or by shared inheritance? One in which land is leveraged, or one in which it is cherished?”
As America’s first conservationists hunters have a century-old tradition of protecting public lands habitat and fighting those driven by myopic greed. The billionaire buzzards have overreached badly and underestimate our resolve. We will not give up or give in. Join us!
David Lien is co-chair of Colorado Backcountry Hunters & Anglers, a former Air Force missile launch officer, and author. In 2014 he was recognized by Field & Stream as a “Hero of Conservation.”
