The Bureau of Land Management (BLM) has released its final Eastern Colorado Resource Management Plan, which will guide the use and management of over 658,000 acres of public lands for decades to come.
Conservation geographer Alison Gallensky with Rocky Mountain Wild said the plan does a good job of increasing protections for some 300,000 currently undeveloped acres, mostly along the Arkansas River between Salida and Canon City, Colorado.
"By setting aside several hundred thousand acres," Gallensky said, "to stay the way they are now, for wildlife, for the headwaters for the different tributaries into the Arkansas River."
In addition to protecting areas for hiking, mountain biking, fishing, and hunting—which bring over $54 million into local economies—Gallensky said these lands support healthy ecosystems that can help species survive in a changing climate.
Some environmental groups criticized the BLM's plan for keeping most acres open to oil and gas leasing, but the Western Energy Alliance defended the agency for balancing development with conservation.
The plan paves the way for future oil and gas production on BLM-managed lands in northeastern Colorado, where current production has been linked to a rise in harmful ground-level ozone pollution and the state's failure to meet Environmental Protection Agency clean air standards.