Roush: Public lands are one of the things that makes Colorado and the West so special. They're where we get outside for our mental and physical health. There's towns and communities, and even states that have really built their economies around these places. They support everything from ranching and hunting to recreation, as well as more extractive industries.
And so, selling public lands is something that I think should be an absolute red line for, you know, anybody who cares about one of the core values of our country.
Gleason: Yeah. Are you hearing much about selling off public lands? I mean, how real of a- how present of a threat is this right now?
R: You know, I think it's much more of a threat than it's ever been before. There's, to get a little more specific, the Trump administration has floated the idea essentially of, financing our deficit budget by selling public lands. And we know that there's a lot of folks in Congress and in our government who will go along with anything the president says.
And I think this is one of those issues where if, if people let him, it. very well could happen. And so again, kind of the need to draw a bright line, the need for, everybody to speak up. Make sure their senators and representatives on both sides of the aisle are hearing loud and clear.
One good example that I can highlight there is that a Republican representative from Montana, Ryan Zinke, who was Trump's previous Secretary of the Interior. And while he did a number of things that as an organization that advocates for public lands we didn't agree with, he now has a bill, that states very clearly that public lands sell off is, is not something that should happen. And so we're calling on our representative, Congressman Jeff Hurd, to co-sponsor that bill.
