As a native Westerner, I am passionate about preserving our natural environment and quality of life. My family and I have hiked, skied and rafted many of Colorado’s wild lands and rivers. I have a deep attachment to the West, its landscapes and way of life, which is one of the primary reasons I sought public office. In Congress, I have fought and will continue to fight to protect our natural resources.
Forests Management, Bark Beetles, and Fire Risk
This year, with the bipartisan cosponsorship of the entire Colorado Congressional delegation, I introduced the Colorado Forest Management Improvement Act of 2007. This bill includes provisions from the Udall-Salazar “Rocky Mountain FIRES Act” introduced in 2006, as well Senator Allard’s and Rep. Musgrave’s “Headwaters Protection and Restoration Act.” This new legislation is the most up-to-date effort to respond to the impacts of the bark beetle epidemic and the associated fire risks, and I am confident that with the delegation’s support it will become law.
Applying only to Colorado, this bill authorizes a total of $120 million over 5 years -- $60 million to be spent to help the Forest Service and communities address fire threats and protect water supplies, and another $60 million to fund research and make grants aimed at developing ways to make better use of forest materials and thus to provide more incentives for thinning projects in order to lessen amount of fuel for severe wildfires. Specifically, the bill:
· Calls for creation of central location points to collect removed trees for ease of disposal or reuse and provides grants for the reuse of the removed trees for energy production as “biomass.”
· Allows for the creation of “Healthy Forest Partnership Zones,” areas at special risk of fire such as beetle affected areas to facilitate involvement of local communities and private industry in efforts to reduce hazardous fuels and reduce fire risks to communities;
· Makes permanent the Forest Service’s “good neighbor” policy focusing treatment and thinning projects on Forest Service land adjacent to homes and communities and provides tax credits and income exclusions for those doing thinning and treatment work on public land or their private properties.
This legislation is an important step to mitigate the growing risks posed by bark beetle infestations and drought, and I look forward to its passage in the Congress.
Wilderness and Roadless Areas
I have also been working to preserve the beauty of many places on our public lands. I was able to work with colleagues from both sides of the aisle to enact legislation to designate the James Peak area north of Berthoud Pass as wilderness and to provide other protection for the rest of this 40,000 acre area astride the Continental Divide in the Front Range Mountain Backdrop west of the Denver-metro area. I also support protection of the remaining roadless parts of our national forests. I have been working to help the Forest Service purchase the Beaver Brook watershed—a 6,000 acre expanse of open space on the flanks of Mount Evans—and thus keep this land open for wildlife and recreation. I have supported other bills and efforts to preserve the Front Range Mountain Backdrop and transfer U.S. Bureau of Land Management Lands to Boulder County’s Open Space program. I am also proud to say that a bill that I have been working on since I first entered Congress, establishing most of the lands in Rocky Mountain National Park as wilderness, is moving through the House and Senate with broad bipartisan support.
Sprawl and Open Space
Colorado’s population has grown rapidly over the last decade, and our state is still facing the effects of that growth — crowded schools, choking traffic jams, the loss of open space. Even as we work to respond to a slowed economy, Coloradans of all political affiliations share concerns about growth and sprawl. Our local communities are on the front lines to respond to these challenges, but there are things the federal government can do to help, and I will continue to work to make that happen. Among other things, this means helping to keep farm and ranch lands available for agriculture, preserving historic structures in the path of development, providing informational management tools to our communities and protecting open space.
Rocky Flats
Rocky Flats once was the site of a nuclear-weapons facility, but that mission is done, cleanup of the site has been completed, and my legislation (enacted in 2001) to transfer most of the site to the Interior Department for management as a National Wildlife Refuge is being implemented. But more needs to be done for the people who worked at Rocky Flats before its closure. Many are sick because they were exposed to beryllium, radiation, and other hazards. I joined in working to enact the Energy Employees Occupational Illness Compensation Program Act (EEOICPA) to compensate them and people who worked at other nuclear-weapons sites, but because the government has incomplete records of exposures at Rocky Flats, it has been difficult for many of them to benefit from that law. I have also introduced legislation to add Rocky Flats workers to the “special exposure cohort” provision of EEOICPA, which would make it easier for many to receive benefits, and will continue to work pass this legislation and to assist them in other ways.
Right-of-Way Claims
I am also pressing to resolve a problem that is the legacy of the Mining Law of 1866’s grant of rights-of-way “for the construction of highways” on Federal lands not set aside for other uses. That grant became section 2477 of the Revised Statues – RS 2477. In 1976, it was repealed by the Federal Land Policy and Management Act of 1976, or “FLPMA.” But FLPMA neither revoked valid RS 2477 rights, nor set a deadline for asserting those rights. So, lawsuits are the only way to finally determine what lands are affected.
Although the status of most long-established highways is not in dispute, this ambiguity in federal law often leads to conflicts over ownership, questions about liability, and increased risks of damage to affected lands and resources from construction work and poorly regulated traffic on disputed routes. Many sensitive areas could suffer. In Colorado, affected areas could include Dinosaur National Monument, Browns Park National Wildlife Refuge, and many wilderness study areas. And other lands can be affected, because RS2477 applied to most lands that belonged to the federal government at any time between 1866 and 1976 – which means most of the west. I have heard from people in Colorado and elsewhere whose private lands could be adversely affected.
When the Clinton Administration tried to resolve this problem administratively, Congress blocked that by passing a law barring issuance of final regulations on the subject until Congress authorizes them. That law is still on the books. The Bush Administration has not asked Congress to change the law. Instead, they want to do an end-run around Congress and to deal with these claims through an administrative process. I oppose that because I think Congress should deal with the problem through new legislation. Toward that end, for several years I have worked with counties and others to develop such legislation. My goal has been and remains to establish a fair and neutral process that will result in setting a time certain for claims to be brought forward so valid claims can be recognized and any invalid ones will be resolved and so to bring an end to litigation and controversy.