MIKE LEMMER: Colorado Wild Public Lands, are you guys a relatively new organization?
NICK GREEN: We've been around for a little bit over a decade. We've been based here in the Roaring Fork Valley, and our goal is to ensure that public lands stay in public hands and that those lands are managed properly, especially in the land exchange process. And so, generally what the land exchange process is, is there's a proponent, someone on the private side, a landowner, that approaches a federal agency — whether that's the Forest Service or the Bureau of Land Management — and says, "Hey, I have these parcels, and I'd like to trade them for something that the public has." And the federal agencies look to see if that's in the public benefit, and oftentimes it's not, and that's where we come in.
LEMMER: And a good example of that in action is the recent Spring Valley development?
GREEN: Yeah. So we have the GAME Act, which is proposed legislation by Representative Herd, and that's kind of involving that land up on Coulter Creek Road just east of Glenwood, and the private land that is up on the Roan Plateau. And that kind of goes into a really weedy subject of land exchanges, which is the legislative land exchange.
LEMMER: We're gonna talk a little bit more about the proposed legislation that you mentioned from Jeff Herd. What can you tell me about that?
GREEN: Sure. So it is a legislative land exchange. So kind of just to refresh there, typically, a land exchange is done administratively, which is through the US Forest Service, BLM, or a land management agency. That process involves a lot of public oversight. There have to be appraisals done. There has to be a NEPA review. All types of existing legislation that ensure that there's public oversight on those land exchanges. And a legislative land exchange pretty much sidesteps the entire process. It's just an act of Congress, and there's no required public oversight whatsoever. And so with this bill when it was being drafted, there was zero community outreach. There was zero community input about, you know, whether there was even an appetite for the general public. There's no evidence in that bill that this land exchange provides any public benefit. So it is involving about 1,200 acres just east of Glenwood that's just off of Coulter Creek Road up there. And then the private lands, it's about 1,200 acres that are on the Roan Plateau just west of Rifle.
LEMMER: And both of those areas are included in this Heard legislation, there?
GREEN: Correct. And the main issue too is that we kinda just got really bad maps, and there's not much information about the exact acreage and the exact details of this land exchange. And so, even our organization, you know, we're in the nitty-gritty; we understand land exchanges, but we were having difficulty understanding that. So to expect the general public to just know what's going on — there's just no way. The way that this legislation was produced, people could understand and have any sort of opinion of, "Oh, yeah, I do support this," or, "No, I don't," because there was just no information.
GREEN: And what exactly is being exchanged here? We're giving away public land, like a parcel of these? And what do we get in exchange?
GREEN: Correct. Yeah, there's about three or so parcels on the public, on the public side that are controlled by or managed by the Bureau of Land Management. And in exchange, the public will receive two parcels that are up on the Roan Plateau. And yeah, we did a site visit just the other day up on those public parcels off of Coulter Creek Road, and it's beautiful country. We saw a baby bear up there. There's tons of riparian habitat. There's flowing water, which this summer, to have flowing water is a big deal. And we think that that land is very valuable to the public, and we don't necessarily see why that land should be exchanged right now.
LEMMER: So they wanna exchange a part of the land on the Roan Plateau for part of this Coulter Creek land, then, right?
GREEN: Correct. So yeah, that private land that is on the Roan Plateau would be transferred to the public domain.
LEMMER: And what would they then be doing with the Coulter Creek land? Is it for extraction, like the oil industry or what?
GREEN: It's currently going to a private ranch. If the bill were to be introduced and passed, it would go to a private landowner. And so just the public would lose a lot of access, and that land also connects to pretty awesome Forest Service land as well. There's a Lookout Mountain trailhead, which it would connect to that, or you would basically be disconnected from that land now.
LEMMER: Okay. Where is the legislation currently at? Working its way through?
GREEN: It hasn't been introduced yet. It was just produced to the Board of County Commissioners for Garfield County a handful of weeks ago. It's kind of floating in the ether right now. It hasn't been introduced to Congress, and we don't expect it to get introduced to Congress right now, considering they are not in session. We don't think it's gonna go forward right now, but it could pop right back up after the election, so we're very much on the lookout.
LEMMER: What kind of reaction did it get from the Garfield County Board of Commissioners and the public as well?
GREEN: Sure. The Board of County Commissioners kind of approved it without much delving into it. And, you know, the community responded. They were upset, especially the neighbors that are right next to those parcels that are up on Coulter Creek Road. They're upset because that's their backyard. They showed up to that meeting and voiced their opinion very loudly, being upset. They were mad that they weren't contacted. They're upset that they haven't really seen good maps, and, you know, there's just no community outreach going on here.
LEMMER: Now, are there more of these types of exchanges in the works around our area?
GREEN: Yeah, so we actually have three other ongoing land exchanges. There's the Rabbit Creek Land Exchange, which right now we do support, and that's between the Forest Service and Pitkin County. We think it's gonna be a great land exchange, and it's an example of an administrative land exchange that we do support. There's also the Treasure Mountain Ranch land exchange, which is a proposed one that we are a little bit on the fence about. And then there's the Compromise Mine land exchange, which is up on Aspen Mountain, that we're not necessarily fans of, but we're kinda watching it. And so make sure to follow our website, Instagram, all that, just to stay up to date on those land exchanges.
LEMMER: Are we seeing a big increase in the legislative land exchange now?
GREEN: Yeah, that's correct. So as these federal land agencies are being increasingly stripped of their funding, they're losing their ability to kind of manage this land exchange process. And so what's happening is because people are approaching these land exchanges and saying, "Hey, I have this land, I wanna exchange it," they're saying, "We don't have the appetite for it because we don't have the budget to manage this land exchange." And so those proponents, the people that have these larger swaths of land, are instead going to representatives and asking for a legislative land exchange to circumnavigate that entire process and just do it without the whole public oversight.
LEMMER: Is there any way we can change that? Is there any way to kind of put an end to this practice?
GREEN: Vote. I would say vote is number one. It is by far the most powerful thing you can do right now. Vote and get your friends to vote. Make sure that they're registered to vote, and, you know, when you're going to the ballot box this November, think about public lands. They are very much under attack. This is by far the worst year and a half for public lands and public asset access I think we've ever had. Make your voice heard, talk to your representatives, and vote. It seriously is important, and it does work.
LEMMER: Any final thoughts here, Nick?
GREEN: All I have to say is a big shout-out to KDNK for being an amazing voice here in the Valley, and, you know, thank you for having me on.
LEMMER: And thank you. It's Nick Greene from Colorado Wild Public Lands joining us here this morning as part of our KDNK Nonprofit Connect, as our KDNK fall membership drive continues.
