| 1964 |
Passage of the Wilderness Act
The National Park Service and the U.S. Forest Service, but not
the Bureau of Land Management, were directed by the original
Wilderness Act to undertake studies of lands under their
jurisdiction and make recommendations to Congress about which
lands should be placed in the National Wilderness Preservation
System. Congress reserved to itself the final decision as to the
designation of wilderness areas. Only five areas in Colorado
were designated with the enactment of the original 1964 Act —
Rawah, Mount Zirkel, Maroon Bells, West Elks, and La Garita.
(720,553 acres) |
| 1970s |
National Park Service and U.S. Forest Service
complete required wilderness inventories and reports
In Colorado, both
the National Park Service and the U.S. Forest Service completed
the required wilderness studies and reports during the 1970s. |
| 1973 |
One of
the first citizen wilderness proposals completed for a
Rattlesnake Canyon Primitive Area, located on Bureau of Land
Management lands. |
| 1975 |
Weminuche
and Flat Tops wildernesses designated (723,424 acres) |
| 1976 |
Eagles Nest,
Black Canyon, Mesa Verde, and Great Sand Dunes
wildernesses designated (232,635 acres) |
| 1976 |
Congress passed
the Federal Land Policy and Management Act (FLPMA)
FLMPA for the first
time placed BLM on equal footing with the Forest Service. In
FLPMA, Congress stated that it was the policy of the United
States to retain ownership of the hundreds of millions of acres
of BLM public lands throughout the West, and directed BLM to
conduct a thorough review of its lands and make recommendations
about the wilderness suitability of those lands to Congress by
1993. |
| 1978 |
Hunter-Fryingpan
and Indian Peak wildernesses designated (158,737
acres) |
| 1980 |
The
majority of Colorado wilderness set aside in legislation, with the culmination of the Forest Service Roadless
Area Review and Evaluation II and in follow-up 1993 legislation.
Legislation designated 14 new wilderness areas. |
| 1980 |
Less than 800,000
acres identified as wilderness study areas by BLM
Colorado BLM completed review of the public lands
under the authority of FLPMA and designated 54
Wilderness Study Areas (WSAs) with 772,000 acres. BLM
manages 8.3 million acres of public lands in Colorado. |
| 1980-1991 |
BLM Makes Wilderness
Recommendation
BLM field offices
around Colorado conducted exhaustive reviews of potential
wilderness areas, and after considering alternative uses
for them such as mining and water projects, finally
proposed approximately 400,000 acres, or just five percent of
BLM land in Colorado, for designation as wilderness. Colorado BLM officials forwarded their recommendations to the President
in October, 1991 and President Bush submitted the
recommendations to the Congress.
Colorado citizen groups conduct field studies separate
from BLM. |
| 1993 |
Designation of 9 new wilderness areas (427,098 acres) |
| 1994 |
Publication of Citizens Wilderness Proposal
Citizens initially published their 1980s-era citizen wilderness
inventories in a 1994 proposal released as the Citizens’
Wilderness Proposal for BLM Lands (CWP). Whereas the Colorado
BLM recommended only 395,792 acres for wilderness designation,
this first citizens’ proposal recommended wilderness designation
for approximately 1.3 million acres of BLM lands. |
| 1990s |
Colorado citizens groups, now under the umbrella of the Colorado
Wilderness Network, continue their field inventory efforts |
| 1999 |
Gunnison Gorge wilderness designated (17,700 acres) |
| 2000 |
Black Ridge Canyons and Spanish Peaks wildernesses
designated (93,294
acres) |
| 2001 |
Colorado
Wilderness Network Updates and Re-Issues CWP
After several years of inventorying additional BLM roadless
lands and holding public meetings across western Colorado,
citizens unveiled proposals for another 17 areas totaling
245,519 acres. These areas were consolidated with the original
1994 Citizens Wilderness Proposal and comprise the present
proposal. |
| 2002 |
James Peak wilderness designated (14,000 acres)
Colorado
Wilderness Act of 2002 introduced by Congresswoman Diana
DeGette
The bill included new Citizens' Proposed Wilderness
areas, and recommended about 1.2 million acres of BLM
lands, or about 15% of BLM surface, to be designated
Wilderness. |
| |
|
