This op-ed by Mark Bell appeared on Colorado Newsline on April 4, 2025,
Having lived in Colorado for over 45 years, I’ve had the privilege of enjoying our public lands on the Eastern Plains, mountains, and Western Slope. I love our outdoors for its multitudes of recreational opportunities that Coloradans have enjoyed.
In 2023, Bureau of Land Management lands in Colorado contributed $8.8 billion to our economy and provided 39,000 jobs. Our public lands provide clean water and they filter pollutants, as well as provide crucial habitat that allow us to see pronghorn, bald eagles, and native wildlife in their natural habitat. Public lands generate substantial revenue through recreation and tourism while also providing invaluable ecological and quality-of-life benefits.
But these wild places are at more risk than ever. The new administration is taking action to undermine their protection. It has begun the process to disassemble the balance of how outdoor spaces are used and managed — inviting in more industrial activity at the expense of outdoor recreation, wildlife, and the preservation of cultural sites.
Bedrock environmental and cultural resource protection laws such as the Endangered Species Act, the Migratory Bird Act, and the 1906 Antiquities Act are being evaluated for dismantlement. As a result, our public lands could be further disrupted for short-term, private economic gain. Sell-offs of public lands for private gain would not benefit the general public. Rather, we would lose things that we would not get back. Coloradans recognize our public lands’ importance. According to a 2025 Colorado College State of the Rockies poll, over two-thirds of Coloradans oppose public land sell-offs.
Public lands are a source of health, prosperity and pride — they should not be profit playgrounds for industrial development. That is why I was glad for the recent passage of Colorado Senate Joint Resolution 25-9, a bipartisan affirmation of Colorado’s commitment to the protection of its public lands that highlights their economic, recreational, cultural and environmental importance. I urge our Colorado congressional delegation to follow the lead our state Legislature has taken on this issue by opposing efforts to sell, transfer or privatize these lands.
U.S. Rep. Jeff Hurd’s district in southwest Colorado includes many acres of our public lands, like Mesa Verde National Park, a site especially significant to Colorado’s cultural heritage, and the Great Sand Dunes National Park, a geographical wonder and certified International Dark Sky Park where people can first-hand witness the splendor of nighttime views.
But it is not only our world class national parks, but also our national conservation areas — such as Dominguez-Escalante, Gunnison Gorge, and McInnis Canyons, as well as the numerous national forests and public rangelands — while lesser known, also hold tremendous historic significance, geologic diversity and wilderness quality. I personally have hiked in all of these special places with my family and friends, and have enjoyed the solitude and open space these special places offer to all Coloradans, and the visitors we attract from across the country.
As Colorado continues to grow, and endures more pressure on our federally owned lands, maintaining these precious spaces, and preventing access restrictions, or transfer of ownership to private and industrial entities, becomes increasingly important to us longtime Coloradans, and newcomers, who have already experienced residential and commercial development, up to or close to the borders of these lands. We have directly seen what historic mineral exploitation and the associated contamination from these activities has done to scar many of these once natural spaces.
These damages bring high remediation and ecological costs, which require money we can increasingly not afford due to the fiscal restraints we are experiencing both on the state and federal level. We must value what beautiful land we have left and learn from this past, damaging exploitation.
Lastly, we know that preventing the further degradation and loss of these natural spaces is important to mitigate the impact of climate change as these lands are important ecosystems for surface and groundwater storage that help minimize the flooding disasters and drought that are becoming increasingly common.
Political parties do not make a difference — we who enjoy the outdoors want our open spaces managed sensibly for our future generations, and the future of our planet.
Mark Bell, now retired, previously worked as a geologist and environmental scientist for both the public and private sectors. He lives in Denver.