Never has it been more important to advocate for public lands

Never before has it been more important to advocate for public lands. Never before has your voice for your public lands been needed like it is now. Never before has the threat to the United States Forest Service (USFS) been so real. 

Reach out to your representatives, call your senators, let them know you support the GORP Act and value the USFS and its mission.

As the second biggest public lands manager in our great union (behind the Bureau of Land Mnagement), the USFS is not only the most important steward of public lands in the Upper Gunnison Valley, but all over the country across 154 national forests and 20 national grasslands; an area of 193 million acres that represents only 8.5% of total U.S. lands. For over 121 years, the USFS has been the overseer, the champion and great protector, the data-driven expertise and institutional knowledge that stewards these public lands. Your lands.

This uniquely American institution that led the world as the first and the largest forestry research organization, is being picked apart in order to further weaken it so it becomes irrelevant and special interests take its place. The 2026 USFS restructuring and relocation, announced on March 31, shifts headquarters to Salt Lake City, Utah. It shifts from a regional structure to 15 state-based offices to accelerate development projects to increase timber, grazing and mining output. The reorganization plan cuts 57 research stations, consolidates research in Fort Collins and establishes six operational service centers to support field operations. Directors of these 15 state-based offices will be ‘political appointments’, not career or data-driven professionals. 

With certain states (Utah) already in litigation over privatizing public lands, this dismantling of the USFS will force out career experts and allow for special interests over stewardship and conservation. It will reduce the efficiency and effectiveness of the agency to provide critical services to these public lands and all Americans that use them. It opens the door for true ‘land grabs’ that have a historical record of extraction over conservation. It opens the door for taking your public lands away and will impact water, recreation, conservation, open space, grazing, hunting, clean air, fishing, lifestyles and livelihoods. Other threats are looming, including Utah’s attempt to wrest control of 18.5 million acres of public lands away from the BLM that is supported by 12 other states. Your public lands. 

Our local Gunnison Ranger District has already been dealt major budget cuts. Here in the Gunnison Valley, we are so lucky to have in place several organizations that support our district. We have been able to respond to those cuts and shortfalls with community support and funding. We are so lucky. We are so fortunate to have a community that treasures our public lands, supports our federal agencies and will do what it takes to safeguard and protect our livelihoods and our beloved natural resources. Many parts of the country do not have those support groups, those partners, those communities, that have the ability to step up and support local districts and field offices. Even with those support groups, the restructuring will further remove policies and protocols established to ensure the integrity of our public lands and their health and preservation for future generations.

Here in the Gunnison Valley, we are even more lucky to have the Gunnison Outdoor Resources Protection (GORP) Act. Over a decade of community collaboration went into the GORP Act. Proposed by Senator Michael Bennet’s office, and supported by Gunnison County Commissioners, 10 representatives spanning the interests of summer and winter recreation, water, hunting/angling, grazing and conservation convened as the working group and found common ground around the community’s vision for public lands in and around Gunnison County. What makes the working group that convened to create the foundation of the GORP Act so special was the reaching across the aisle that is so rare these days. A mountain bike club supporting wilderness areas is hardly the norm. Wilderness organizations supporting trails in the right places is unique. Wildlife and sportsperson representatives worked alongside water and conservation representatives to create the best conditions possible for thriving wildlife and biological diversity, alongside resource infrastructure and healthy, sustainable water and timber stands. Silent users worked alongside motorized users to recognize responsible and balanced opportunities across a vast area. All representatives truly found common ground around the best interest of the resource itself, in each of the prescribed areas, for their individual and unique characteristics. 

After the working group proposal, county commissioners and Senator Bennet’s office spent years doing extensive outreach and engaged with an even broader community, including neighboring counties, land owners, native tribes and many other stakeholders. In 2022, Senator Bennet’s office completed the draft legislation and in September of 2024, Senators Bennet and Hickenlooper introduced it in the Senate. In May of 2025, the bill was reintroduced in both chambers of Congress by Senators Bennet and John Hickenlooper and Representative Jeff Hurd.

Being a part of the working group that proposed the GORP Act was a glimmer of hope left in our seemingly chaotic and self-destructive republic. Citizens as representatives worked together to help foster and propose a plan that is truly in the best interest of public lands and resource protection, for the good of all the people. Special interests were put aside to seek a greater collaborative vision that looks to progressive and modern means of land management prescriptions for the best interest of the resource. Better than one use or interest, the GORP Act was created for the greater good of all. Nothing is lost, nothing goes away. What’s proposed is a modern approach to resource protection where uses are allowed that preserve the integrity and unique character of each area. Tools are provided and local stakeholders have a hand in helping support agencies and land managers protect our greatest of public resources. GORP is a modern day, patriotic and progressive act that shows support not just for our public lands, but for the agencies that manage them. 

Never has it been more important to say something, do something. Call your senators, reach out to your representatives. Simply go to their websites and contact them. Let them know our public lands are not for sale. Let them know you support measures like the GORP Act to help steward our lands and most precious natural resources, forever. Let those congressmen and congresswomen know that you don’t support the dismantling of the USFS, an iconic American institution that has helped shape and protect our most precious and unique public lands.