The Crested Butte News Serving the Gunnison Valley since 1999
From ranchers to enviros, Delta County to Gunnison…
By Mark Reaman
In what could be a game changing move given the bipartisan cooperation involved, the Gunnison Outdoor Resource Protection (GORP) Act was introduced to both houses of Congress last week. Democratic Senators Michael Bennet and John Hickenlooper were joined by Republican Representative Jeff Hurd in introducing the GORP Act of 2025. Initially introduced in the Senate last year, Hurd’s sponsorship of the companion bill marks the first time the legislation has been introduced in the House of Representatives. Bennet has been working on the Act for more than a decade.
While visiting with Gunnison County commissioners in a public work session on May 12, Hurd had indicated that in the tradition of Republican Teddy Roosevelt, he took the conservation of public lands “seriously” and could support the majority of the proposed GORP legislation. Hurd particularly noted the cooperation between a wide range of stakeholders to come up with the proposal. He also teased that news of his support could be coming soon. It came three days later on May 15 and two days before Colorado Public Lands Day.
“I am honored to lead the Gunnison Outdoor Resources Protection Act alongside Senator Bennet,” Hurd commented. “This legislation reflects strong local support for the responsible stewardship of our land.”
“Coloradans have spent over a decade at trailheads and kitchen tables to find common ground and protect Gunnison County’s spectacular landscapes, economy, and natural resources,” Bennet said. “This bill proves that people with wide-ranging interests can develop a common vision to preserve our public lands for future generations.”
GORP is one of the biggest public lands bills to come out of the Senate in decades and it is widely understood that having legislation sponsored in a bipartisan manner from both Democrats and Republicans should increase the odds of its passage.
According to a press release from Bennet’s office, GORP will protect more than 730,000 acres of public lands in Western Colorado, safeguarding the region’s local economy, recreation, ranching heritage, wildlife habitat, and clean air and water. The bill is based on over a decade of collaboration with local governments, Tribes, and public lands user groups. It has the bipartisan support of six counties in Western Colorado, as well as the Ute Mountain Ute Tribe and local municipalities. A wide variety of local businesses and public lands user groups, including summer and winter motorized recreation, conservation, mountain biking, whitewater recreation, rock climbers, ranchers, water users, and hunters and anglers, also support the bill.
Vocal support for GORP
“Adventurers across Colorado and the country come to the Gunnison Basin for its rugged canyons and untamed wilderness,” said Hickenlooper. “Protecting these additional 730,000 acres will help keep it that way for generations.”
“The GORP Act is the product of the way we do business in Gunnison County: We sit down with our friends and neighbors and do the hard work of finding common ground and durable solutions that best serve our communities. Public Lands touch every aspect of our lives and are the backbone of our economy, our values and our way of life. I am proud of the work we have done to bring so many stakeholders- snowmobilers, ranchers, mountain bikers, hunters/anglers and conservationists to name a few- together,” said Gunnison County commissioner Jonathan Houck. “While GORP started in Gunnison County, I couldn’t be happier to stand with five neighboring Western Slope counties in support of this legislation, and I thank Senator Bennet for listening to our communities and to Congressman Hurd for supporting the hard work of his constituents in this part of his district.”
“The Gunnison County Stockgrowers Association is pleased to support the GORP Act,” said Andy Spann, president of the Gunnison County Stockgrowers Association. “Sustaining the rich ranching heritage in and around the Gunnison Basin was one of the key goals of the Gunnison Public Lands Initiative, and the result is balanced legislation that respects and protects the County’s rich ranching heritage, ensures that designated areas can continue to be used for grazing and historical ranching activities, and will help improve recreation management and watershed protection.”
“The GORP Act is how public lands protections should be created – the details were hashed out by local public lands users and passed up to Senator Bennet to draft into Federal legislation for the Federal public lands adjacent to our community,” said Jon Hare, advocacy director for High Country Conservation Advocates. “The GORP Act looks at the big picture to address critical wildlife areas that don’t currently have long-term protections in place; the Act designates Recreation Management Areas where large amounts of public use take place; the Act creates boundaries that allow land managers to do fuel mitigation work while protecting some of our best stands of forest; and the Act will cover the nooks and crannies of our public lands that might not have been considered in the past, yet are still in pristine condition and worthy of protection. The GORP Act does all this without really changing what we are currently allowed to do on our adjacent public lands.”
“I am beyond excited to see GORP being introduced as bipartisan legislation,” said Crested Butte mayor Ian Billick. “This is a testament to the community conversation shepherded by Senator Bennet, as well as his foresight and hard work. Serious kudos to Representative Jeff Hurd for stepping up to support this bill, making it clear that when local communities invest their blood, sweat, and tears in working through hard conversations, in this instance for more than 10 years, bipartisan progress is possible! It may be hard to see ourselves clearly at times, but our progress on critical issues like public lands management is the envy of many other communities.”
Bennet drafted the GORP Act at the request of Gunnison County and based on a proposal from the Gunnison Public Lands Initiative. The bill also reflects the input from surrounding counties and feedback Senator Bennet received during a public comment period held in 2022. Bennet and Hickenlooper first introduced the GORP Act in 2024.
