San Miguel County continues to advocate for public lands
Commissioners finalize resolution backing public lands stewardship and send letter to Congressman Jeff Hurd
By Sophie Stuber, Telluride Daily Planet
Even with the Trump administration’s recent effort to dismantle environmental protections — including rolling back clean energy projects, expanding oil and gas drilling on public lands, and cuts to federal workforce — San Miguel County is continuing to advocate for public lands.
The San Miguel Board of County Commissioners (BOCC) took two actions during their recent meeting on Wednesday, April 30, to express support for the sustainable uses of these lands.
The commissioners finalized a resolution in support of public lands stewardship, acknowledging the multi-use nature of these lands. The resolution also supports maintaining the funding levels to manage public lands and opposes attempts to sell, transfer or dispose of these lands. Sixty percent of San Miguel County comprises public federal public lands.
“Landscape conservation is critical, especially as climate change continues to significantly alter landscapes, livelihoods and communities across the West,” Sheep Mountain Alliance Program Director Ruthie Boyd told the Daily Planet.
The La Plata County Commissioners passed a similar resolution in April, also endorsed the continued federal management and stewardship of public lands and the maintenance of appropriate workforce numbers.
With these county resolutions, the idea is to present a united front in favor of public lands in Colorado, rather than relying on individual voices.
“Public lands provide essential resources to our residents, workers and visitors,” said commissioner Galena Gleason, reading from the resolution. “The residents of San Miguel County deeply value these public lands for their multiple uses and accessibility, regardless of socioeconomic status, race or gender, as evidenced by high participation in local stewardship, conservation, research, and trail organizations and events.”
The BOCC also voted to send a letter to Congressman Jeff Hurd, representative from Colorado’s 3rd Congressional District. In the letter, the commissioners expressed concerns over a bill that Hurd introduced to Congress in March. The Productive Public Lands Act would get rid of the new Bureau of Land Management (BLM) frameworks on oil and gas leasing as well as Resource Management Plans (RMP) protecting local species, including the Gunnison sage-grouse.
Hurd said in a statement that the goal of the Productive Public Lands Act is to “unlock resource development on some of our most productive lands.” Hurd’s statement added that withdrawing the RMPs would put the U.S. “on a path to energy dominance.”
But some regional governments, including in San Miguel County, and environmental groups have concerns that the legislation would remove key protections and override local jurisdiction.
Hurd’s proposed legislation would reverse recent changes designed to reduce the total acreage available in the future for oil and gas leasing on some BLM land. The bill would also draw back the BLM’s 2024 resource plan amendments to protect big game corridors and habitats, reverting to a “no-action planning alternative,” where regulations return to how they were before the RMPs were finalized.
“It sends a strong and devastating message that our public lands should serve the extractive industry above all else. Of course, we fundamentally reject that idea. Public lands should be cared for, uplifted and protected at every turn. They're one of the greatest gifts we have,” Boyd said.
In their letter, the commissioners reiterated San Miguel County’s commitments to protecting Gunnison sage-grouse and other wildlife and reiterated the county’s time and financial contributions to the Resource Management Plans.
“For decades, this kind of work has been done at the local level, with collaboration with all sorts of interested parties, and by trying to edge around that public process, this is legislative overreach and inappropriate,” commissioner Anne Brown said at a BOCC meeting in March.
In 2024, the BLM released a Record of Decision (ROD) and approved a RMP amendment for the Gunnison sage-grouse. The bird is a federally listed threatened species under the Endangered Species Act. The amendment established a framework to protect habitat for the Gunnison sage-grouse on BLM lands for the eight populations in southwest Colorado and southeast Utah. The BLM manages about 42% of the Gunnison sage-grouse’s current habitat, primarily located in southwest Colorado.
The BLM’s amendment increased the buffer zone around Gunnison sage-grouse habitat to one-mile, designated three new Areas of Critical Environmental Concern (ACECs) and limited surface disturbances on BLM lands in sage-grouse habitats.
San Miguel County was a cooperating agency for both RMP amendments, although the county focused more on the Gunnison sage-grouse RMP.
The Productive Public Lands Act would also eliminate 10,000 acres protected in the Dry Creek Area of Critical Concern and reduce the protections for Gunnison sage-grouse and their habitats.
“[Hurd’s] bill would override the public process, diminish our role as a cooperating agency and mandate an outcome that was not supported by the agency and the public process,” Starr Jamison, San Miguel County director of natural resources and climate, noted in March.