By Christian M. Lyons On Feb. 19, 2015, President Barack Obama designated 21,586 acres of pristine canyons, rivers and backcountry forest in Colorado as the Browns Canyon National Monument. “Conservation is a truly American idea,” the president said. “The naturalists and industrialists and politicians who dreamt up our system of public lands and waters did …
by Mike Rosso We’re back, and just in time for the big news about the new national monument designation for the Browns Canyon Wilderness Study Area. At the urging of U.S. Sen. Michael Bennet and Gov. John Hickenlooper, President Obama signed a proclamation on Feb. 19 designating 21,000 acres of remote wilderness in central Chaffee …
by Mike Rosso As another election season comes to an end, many Coloradans are likely breathing a sigh of relief. I’m a registered Independent and non-TV watcher, so have been spared the nonstop robocalls and the wall-to-wall commercials that have dominated the airwaves in our “swing state.” As a media entity, we’ve also been mostly …
About 230 people showed up on a chilly but sunny day in Nathrop for a listening session on Browns Canyon hosted by Colorado Sen. Mark Udall on April 13.
They were there to discuss concerns, voice opposition and to show support for legislation that Udall plans to introduce that would create a national monument and wilderness area designation for the 22,000 acres that lie east of the Arkansas River, about halfway between Salida and Buena Vista.
After years of on-the-ground research and action that stretched all the way from the rapids of the Arkansas River to Washington D.C., the Friends of Browns Canyon (FOBC), a local nonprofit group, still needed an effective way to tout the landscape and allure of Browns Canyon, which lies between Buena Vista and Salida.
They’d made great progress on the effort, particularly with help of photographer John Fielder, who donated his time to create beautiful images of the proposed wilderness area. They also captured the attention of Colorado Sen. Mark Udall, who has visited the Browns Canyon area several times.
Browns Canyon
Back in November 2009, we wrote extensively about the proposed Browns Canyon Wilderness Area in central Chaffee County (Colorado Central, No. 189). Recently there has been some major movement on the possibility of wilderness and/or national monument designation for the area on the part of Sen. Mark Udall. Our current congresscritter, Doug Lamborn – apparently due to some lingering animosity towards his predecessor – has chosen not to pursue years of negotiations on the scenic, diverse and remote 23,000 acres of Forest Service and BLM land, but now he is getting rightly nudged aside with the proposals put forth by Udall.