[Congressional Record Volume 155, Number 49 (Monday, March 23, 2009)]
[Senate]
[Pages S3604-S3605]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                  OMNIBUS PUBLIC LANDS MANAGEMENT ACT

  Mr. UDALL of Colorado. Mr. President, I express my strong support for 
the bipartisan omnibus lands package, HR 146, which the Senate passed 
overwhelmingly in a floor vote. I thank Energy and Natural Resources 
Chairman Bingaman and Ranking Member Murkowski for working across the 
aisle to put together this major piece of natural resources 
legislation. As many of our colleagues have noted, this legislation 
represents the largest public lands package in decades. Most 
importantly, this lands package represents a major victory for the 
people--and the lands--of Colorado.
  There is much in this bill to highlight. All of the areas that are 
slated for protection under this legislation are deserving of such 
designation.
  I have personally visited many of these places that we took action to 
preserve--places like Longs Peak, a mountain over 14,000 feet that 
looms over the great plains above Denver; the dramatic red rock canyons 
where water plunges to the Gunnison River from the Dominguez Canyons; 
and trails that climb up the steep rocky slopes of Colorado's northern 
Front Range looking out over the expanse of prairie that reaches to the 
eastern horizon.
  These lands represent a variety of landscapes and natural attributes. 
They typify the diversity of our Nation, and their dramatic 
environments inspire visitors and give them a sense that anything is 
possible.
  The connection we have to our natural landscapes and other equally 
important provisions--such as providing a funding mechanism for a water 
conduit that will help provide clean water to help enhance the 
productivity of farms and ranches along the lower Arkansas River--
underscore why this bill is so important and worthy of our support. The 
areas and vital resources that are protected in this bill will help 
ensure a vibrant and healthy environment and thereby provide a solid 
foundation for a healthy and vibrant economy. This bill is not just 
about the special places it encompasses it is about us and our values. 
It deserves our support.
  Specifically for Coloradans, this package will help preserve and 
protect majestic public landscapes in Colorado and help provide needed 
water supplies to communities and farmers on Colorado's productive 
Eastern Plains. These are issues on which I have worked for many years 
in the U.S. House of Representatives and now in the Senate. On behalf 
of the people of Colorado, I am proud that the following provisions 
will likely become law in the coming days.
  First, the bill includes the Arkansas Valley Conduit Act of 2009. 
This legislation will help protect the water supply for the Arkansas 
River Valley's communities and productive agricultural lands by 
advancing the construction of the long-planned Arkansas Valley Conduit. 
The depressed economic status of southeastern Colorado made it a 
difficult financial undertaking for the region, a challenge that 
continues

[[Page S3605]]

today. This bill will help see this facility become a reality and help 
the farming and ranching communities in the valley continue to produce 
needed food for the state and Nation.
  Second, the Colorado Northern Front Range Study Act included in the 
package will help Coloradans protect the scenic Front Range mountain 
backdrop in the northern Denver-metro area and the region just west of 
Rocky Flats.
  Rising from the Great Plains, the Front Range of the Rocky Mountains 
provides a scenic mountain backdrop to many communities in the Denver 
metropolitan area and elsewhere in Colorado. This mountain backdrop, 
which includes much of the Arapaho-Roosevelt National Forest, is an 
important aesthetic and economic asset for adjoining communities. It is 
also part of our unique culture, having beckoned settlers westward 
before exposing them to the harshness and humbling majesty of the Rocky 
Mountain West that helped define the region. The pioneers' independent 
spirit and respect for nature still lives with us to this day.
  Yet rapid population growth is increasing recreational use of the 
Arapaho-Roosevelt National Forest and adding pressure to develop other 
lands within and adjacent to that national forest. The bill directs the 
U.S. Forest Service to study the ownership patterns of the lands 
comprising the Front Range mountain backdrop and identify areas that 
are open and may be at risk of development. Additionally, it directs 
the Forest Service to recommend to Congress how these lands might be 
protected and how the Federal Government could help local communities 
and residents to achieve that goal.
  Third, the bill includes the National Trails System Willing Seller 
Authority Act. This act will change the current law prohibiting people 
who own land associated with several units of the trail system from 
selling those lands to the Federal Government. Because of this act, 
people who want to sell land for inclusion in certain units of the 
National Trails System will be able to do so.
  Our national trails are a national treasure, and I have enjoyed them 
for my whole life. We should allow property owners to sell their land 
along these trails to the Federal Government to be part of our public 
lands legacy. But we must make clear that these land sales are from 
willing sellers.
  Finally, this legislation includes the Rocky Mountain National Park 
Wilderness and Indian Peaks Wilderness Expansion Act. This provision 
will designate nearly 250,000 acres of Rocky Mountain National Park as 
wilderness. The provision will guarantee the backcountry of Rocky 
Mountain National Park will be managed so that future generations will 
experience the park as we know it today. The legislation will also 
allow the National Park Service to continue its important efforts to 
battle the devastating bark beetle infestation and to engage in 
necessary wildfire mitigation efforts and emergency response actions.
  The wilderness designation in this bill will cover some 94 percent of 
the park including Longs Peak 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.
  Examples of all the natural ecosystems that make up the splendor of 
Rocky Mountain National Park are included in the wilderness that will 
be designated by this bill. At the same time, the wilderness boundaries 
have been drawn so as to allow continued access for the use of existing 
roadways, buildings and developed areas, and privately owned land.
  In conclusion, the passage of this bill in the Senate and House will 
mark the culmination of many years of work by a number of Coloradans, 
and I look forward to it becoming law.

                          ____________________