[Congressional Record Volume 149, Number 22 (Thursday, February 6, 2003)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E162-E163]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




     REINTRODUCTION OF ROCKY MOUNTAIN NATIONAL PARK WILDERNESS ACT

                                 ______
                                 

                            HON. MARK UDALL

                              of colorado

                    in the house of representatives

                      Wednesday, February 5, 2003

  Mr. UDALL of Colorado. Mr. Speaker, today I am again introducing a 
bill to designate as wilderness most of the lands within the Rocky 
Mountain National Park, in Colorado.
  This legislation will provide important protection and management 
direction for some truly remarkable country, adding nearly 250,000 
acres in the park to the National Wilderness Preservation System. The 
bill is essentially identical to one previously introduced by my 
predecessor, Representative David Skaggs, and one I introduced in the 
107th Congress. Those bills in turn were based on similar measures 
earlier proposed, including some by former Senator Bill Armstrong and 
others.
  Over a number of years my predecessor and I have worked with the 
National Park Service and others to refine the boundaries of the areas 
proposed for wilderness designation and consulted closely with many 
interested parties in Colorado, including local officials and both the 
Northern Colorado Water Conservancy District and the St. Vrain & Left 
Hand Ditch Water Conservancy District. These consultations provided the 
basis for many of the provisions of the bill I am introducing today, 
particularly regarding the status of existing water facilities.
  Covering some 94 percent of the park, the new wilderness will include 
Longs Peaks and other major mountains along the Great Continental 
Divide, glacial cirques and snow fields, broad expanses of alpine 
tundra and wet meadows, old-growth forests, and hundreds of lakes and 
streams, all untrammeled by human structures or passage. Indeed, 
examples of all the natural ecosystems that make up the splendor of 
Rocky Mountain National Park are included in the wilderness that would 
be designated by this bill.
  The features of these lands and waters that make Rocky Mountain 
National Park a true gem in our national parks system also make it an 
outstanding wilderness candidate.
  The wilderness boundaries are carefully located to assure continued 
access for use of existing roadways, buildings and developed areas, 
privately owned land, and areas where additional facilities and 
roadwork will improve park management and visitor services. In 
addition, specific provisions are included to assure that there will be 
no adverse effects on continued use of existing water facilities.
  This bill is based on National Park Service recommendations, prepared 
more than 25 years ago and presented to Congress by President Richard 
Nixon. It seems to me that, in that time, there has been sufficient 
study, consideration, and refinement of those recommendations so that 
Congress can proceed

[[Page E163]]

with this legislation. I believe that this bill constitutes a fair and 
complete proposal, sufficiently providing for the legitimate needs of 
the public at large and all interested groups, and deserves to be 
enacted in this form.
  It took more than a decade before the Colorado delegation and the 
Congress were finally able, in 1993, to pass a statewide national 
forest wilderness bill. Since then, action has been completed on bills 
designating wilderness in the Spanish Peaks area of the San Isabel 
National Forest as well as in the Black Canyon of the Gunnison National 
Park, the Gunnison Gorge, the Black Ridge portion of the Colorado 
Canyons National Conservation Area, and the James Peak area of the 
Arapaho, Roosevelt National Forests.

  We now need to continue making progress regarding wilderness 
designations for deserving lands, including other public lands in our 
state that are managed by the Bureau of Land Management. And the time 
is ripe for finally resolving the status of the lands within Rocky 
Mountain National Park that are dealt with in the bill I am introducing 
today.
  All Coloradans know that the question of possible impacts on water 
rights can be a primary point of contention in Congressional debates 
over designating wilderness areas. So, it's very important to 
understand that the question of water rights for Rocky Mountain 
National Park Wilderness is entirely different from many considered 
before, and is far simpler.
  To begin with, it has long been recognized under the laws of the 
United States and Colorado, including a decision of the Colorado 
Supreme Court, that Rocky Mountain National Park already has extensive 
federal reserved water rights arising from the creation of the national 
park itself.
  This is not, so far as I have been able to find out, a controversial 
decision, because there is a widespread consensus that there should be 
no new water projects developed within Rocky Mountain National Park. 
And, since the park sits astride the continental divide, there's no 
higher land around from which streams flow into the park, so there is 
no possibility of any upstream diversions. And it's important to 
emphasize that in any event water rights associated with wilderness 
would amount only to guarantees that water will continue to flow 
through and out of the park as it always has. This preserves the 
natural environment of the park, but it doesn't affect downstream water 
use.
  The bottom line is that once water leaves the park, it will continue 
to be available for diversion and use under Colorado law regardless of 
whether or not lands within the park are designated as wilderness.
  These legal and practical realities are reflected in my bill--as in 
my predecessor's--by inclusion of a finding that because the park 
already has these extensive reserved rights to water, there is no need 
for any additional reservation of such right, and an explicit 
disclaimer that the bill affects any such reservation.
  Some may ask, why should we designate wilderness in a national park? 
Isn't park protection the same as wilderness, or at least as good? The 
answer is that the wilderness designation will give an important 
additional level of protection to most of the park.
  Our national park system was created, in part, to recognize and 
preserve prime examples of outstanding landscape. At Rocky Mountain 
National Park in particular, good Park Service management over the past 
83 years has kept most of the park in a natural condition. And all the 
lands that are covered by this bill are currently being managed, in 
essence, to protect their wilderness character. Formal wilderness 
designation will no longer leave this question to the discretion of the 
Park Service, but will make it clear that within the designated areas 
there will never be roads, visitor facilities, or other manmade 
features that interfere with the spectacular natural beauty and 
wildness of the mountains.
  This kind of protection is especially important for a park like Rocky 
Mountain, which is relatively small by western standards. As nearby 
land development and alteration has accelerated in recent years, the 
pristine nature of the park's backcountry becomes an increasingly rare 
feature of Colorado's landscape.
  Further, Rocky Mountain National Park's popularity demands definitive 
and permanent protection for wild areas against possible pressures for 
development with the park. While only about one tenth the size of 
Yellowstone National Park, Rocky Mountain sees nearly the same number 
of visitors each year as does our first national park.
  At the same time, designating these carefully selected portions of 
Rocky Mountain as wilderness will make other areas, now restricted 
under interim wilderness protection management, available for overdue 
improvements to park roads and visitor facilities.
  So, Mr. Speaker, this bill will protect some of our nation's finest 
wild lands. It will protect existing rights. It will not limit any 
existing opportunity for new water development. And it will affirm our 
commitment in Colorado to preserving the very features that make our 
State such a remarkable place to live. So, I think the bill deserves 
prompt enactment.
  I am attaching a fact sheet that outlines the main provisions of this 
bill:


              rocky mountain national park wilderness act

                      Rocky Mountain National Park

       Rocky Mountain National Park, one of the nation's most 
     visited parks, possesses some of the most pristine and 
     striking alpine ecosystems and natural landscapes in the 
     continental United States. This park straddles the 
     Continental Divide along Colorado's northern Front Range. It 
     contains high altitude lakes, herds of bighorn sheep and elk, 
     glacial cirques and snow fields, broad expanses of alpine 
     tundra, old-growth forests and thundering rivers. It also 
     contains Longs Peak, one of Colorado's 54 fourteen thousand-
     foot peaks.

                                The Bill

       The bill is based on one introduced by Rep. Udall in the 
     106th and 107th Congresses and similar legislation proposed 
     by former Congressman David Skaggs and others previously. It 
     would:

       designate about 249,562 acres within Rocky Mountain 
     National Park, or about 94 percent of the Park, as 
     wilderness, including Longs Peak--the areas included is based 
     on the recommendations prepared over 25 years ago by 
     President Nixon with some revisions in boundaries to reflect 
     acquisitions and other changes since that recommendation was 
     submitted
       designate about 1,000-acres as potential wilderness until 
     non-conforming structures are removed
       provide that if non-federal inholdings within the 
     wilderness boundaries are acquired by the United States, they 
     will become part of the wilderness and managed accordingly

       The bill would NOT:

       create a new federal reserved water right; instead, it 
     includes a finding that the Park's existing federal reserved 
     water rights, as decided by the Colorado courts, are 
     sufficient
       include certain lands in the Park as wilderness, including 
     Trail Ridge and other roads used for motorized travel, water 
     storage and conveyance structures, buildings, developed areas 
     of the Park, some private inholdings

                       Existing Water Facilities

       Boundaries for the wilderness are drawn to exclude existing 
     storage and conveyance structures assuring continued use of 
     the Grand River Ditch and its right-of-way, the east and west 
     portals of the Adams Tunnel and gauging stations of the 
     Colorado-Big Thompson Project, Long Draw Reservoir, and lands 
     owned by the St. Vrain & Left Hand Water Conservancy 
     District--including Copeland Reservoir.
       The bill includes provisions to make clear that its 
     enactment will not impose new restrictions on already allowed 
     activities for the operation, maintenance, repair, or 
     reconstruction of the Adams Tunnel, which diverts water under 
     Rocky Mountain National Park (including lands that would be 
     designated by the bill) or other Colorado-Big Thompson 
     Project facilities, and that additional activities for these 
     purposes will be allowed should they be necessary to respond 
     to emergencies and subject to reasonable restrictions.

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