Bennet takes up-close look at GORP aims

(Reprinted with permission from The Daily Sentinel in Grand Junction, Colorado.)

U.S. Sen. Michael Bennet spent his Monday morning floating the Gunnison River, joined by multiple county commissioners, Bureau of Land Management staffers and conservation organizations.

The trip gave Bennet the opportunity to experience the lands that would be protected by the GORP (Gunnison Outdoor Resources Protection) Act, bipartisan legislation championed by himself, fellow Democratic U.S. Sen. John Hickenlooper and U.S. House Rep. Jeff Hurd (R-Grand Junction).

Bennet was joined on his river trip by former Delta County Commissioner Don Suppes, Gunnison County Commissioner Jonathan Houck, Delta County Administrator Robbie LeValley, BLM Deputy Southwest Director Rob Potts, BLM Gunnison Gorge River Ranger Rooster Barnhart, Western Slope Conservation Center Executive Director Hannah Stevens and Conservation Lands Foundation Southwest Associate Program Director Ben Katz. The Daily Sentinel tagged along as well.

The group departed from Pleasure Park Fishing on jet boats, winding more than four miles upstream through the Gunnison Gorge National Conservation Area courtesy of Pleasure Park guides.

On the bank of the Smith Fork tributary, Bennet listened to others in the group for their perspectives on the GORP Act, legislation Bennet hailed as being written entirely in western Colorado rather than Washington, D.C., through the work of the Gunnison Public Lands Initiative that brought together various community groups for their input.

The GORP Act is described as protecting more than 730,000 acres of public lands in western Colorado, featuring provisions to allow for recreational jet boating in Delta County as well as public access to the Gunnison Forks boat ramp, which is located on private property.

Suppes detailed some of the clashing between Delta County and Gunnison County leadership before they compromised and found common ground (or waterways), such as securing jet boat permits for the Gunnison Forks Day Use Area that he called “critical” for the county’s economy.

“We get a lot of auxiliary uses, from search and rescue to BLM using it for their tree planning and for stocking fish and for picking up some stray sheep up here and bringing them back down. We felt a real need to find a way to permanently secure this. This was our best path forward to make that happen,” Suppes said.

“We’ve had a lot of people with influence, a lot of famous people and rich people come up here and they use this jet boat to get up here; they love to fish this. Jimmy Carter used to come do this every year. They spend money in Delta County ... This jet boat brings an incredible amount of money into the economy. If we lost this, it would be felt in the economic side of Delta County.”

The boat ramp provision would allow jet boat use to continue if there is permanent public access to the jet boat. Delta County has a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with the jet boat operator, Gunnison River Expeditions, that says that, if Delta County helps them secure a continuation of their permit, the operator would transfer their river access point to the county.

The BLM has nearby boat ramp access to the North Fork River, but this ramp is difficult for the public to access and leads into choppy waters.

Houck spoke about how the GORP Act was born out of local conversations and compromises in order to best serve the area’s “world-class” lands and waterways. He vouched for the protection of these lands as leading to more recreational use that, as a result, turns more outsiders into public lands advocates.

“One of the first things in our first meeting talking about GORP was that in Gunnison County … all existing uses continue to be allowed. If there’s a trail or a type of use that’s allowed, it will continue to be allowed. If there’s a grazing permit there, they’ll be allowed to continue grazing there,” Houck said.

Boat ramp access

“We understand these lands. Guides and outfitters, our ag producers, people who are in timber and energy.... All these different parts that make up our community, we really understand the nuts and bolts of the interaction, but we never lost sight of the fact that, though these lands are closest to people in our counties, these belong to every single person in the United States.”

LeValley spoke about the GORP Act’s provision that would ensure that lands around the area would not be used for oil and gas purposes.

“As we looked at some earlier legislation and some of the earlier areas that BLM had over the years, because they’re multiple use, we still rely on that energy. The real concern from the community as a whole was, ‘Do we have to have it all right in our backyard, especially when we think about all of the ag in all of Delta County?’ It does rely on some portion of there not being oil and gas everywhere,” LeValley said.

“We looked at this lower valley floor and withdrawal of those minerals with the BLM at the table as well. That’s what you see in that legislation now. Just like certainty with the jet boat, there’s certainty with that mineral withdrawal.”

Potts provided The Daily Sentinel with the BLM’s perspective on the aims of the GORP Act, expressing appreciation that the bureau was given a seat at the table in the legislation’s crafting.

“We just celebrated the 25th anniversary of the Gunnison Gorge National Conservation Area. It’s a gem. I think many people consider this the best whitewater rafting and wilderness in the state of Colorado, which is saying a lot,” Potts said. “I’m glad we’ve got all these people here today to talk about all of that.”

Water resources

Stevens and Katz both brought a conservation perspective to the group.

“The water resources we want to protect are directly linked to our economic health and vitality and farming and ag. The fact that Delta and Gunnison counties have been working with stakeholders for years is really a testament to how important these processes are with community involvement,” Stevens said.

“We’re happy about the mineral withdrawal. That would withdraw 123,000-ish acres from the North Fork watershed from oil and gas developments, including much of the valleys, BLM parcels and some roadless areas higher up in the watershed.”

Katz added: “Thanks to Delta County and Senator Bennet and his team for inviting the conversation and finding people who can sit down and find some consensus in collaboration for how we solve these problems, how we make sure this boat ramp remains public, how we make sure there’s certainty from people in the North Fork that the public lands around their private properties are not going to be developed for oil and gas.”

Once the conversation concluded, attendees hopped into rafts and floated back down the Gunnison River to Pleasure Park. Back at Pleasure Park, Bennet spoke to The Daily Sentinel about what he had gotten out of this excursion.

“It’s a project that was developed from the ground up,” Bennet said. “The ability to be able to include these jet boats as part of it is so critical to the local economy. It would have made no sense for them to go away, but it could go away. If we can pass this legislation, that economic benefit will be preserved, because you had a group of people at the local level working together across party lines, across county lines, to do this work, also in partnership with the private sector. It’s a win-win-win that I think sets a great example for other efforts across the western United States.”

Bennet expressed hope that the GORP Act will be quick to pass in Congress because of its bipartisan support. He praised Hurd, who represents Colorado’s 3rd Congressional District, for his support of the legislation and his commitment to sponsor the bill in the House. Bennet said he invited Hurd to join along for this river trip, but Hurd was unable to attend.

He was asked how he would respond to the GORP Act’s detractors, such as former Colorado GOP Vice Chairwoman Hope Scheppelman, who’s running against Hurd in CD3. A major tenet of her campaign is calling the GORP Act a “federal land grab.”

“That’s the furthest thing from the truth. This proposal not only preserves existing uses but it’s making sure that this motorized use can stay, because otherwise, it’s not going to be able to stay probably. I understand there are people all over the world who have ideological commitments to not expand any public lands, but I don’t think that honors the best traditions of our parents and grandparents, no matter what political party they were in. They preserved all of this for us,” Bennet said.

“What the GORP Act does is, in a very bipartisan way, in a ground-up way, far from being a land grab from Washington, D.C., express that these lands should be protected in honor of our parents and grandparents, and also for our children and grandchildren, so we know they too will have the chance to float and fish this river. That’s much more important than partisan politics.”

(Nathan Deal is a staff writer at The Daily Sentinel in Grand Junction, Colorado.)