Colorado bills included in public lands package
• Crags, Colorado Land Exchange Act: Would clear the way for a land exchange between the Broadmoor Hotel and the United States Forest Service. It will allow public access to the Barr Trail and other areas while easing the property management burden on USFS, proponents say.
• Bolts Ditch Access and Use Act: Would allow the town of Minturn broader access to Bolts Lake, which is part of its water system. In 1980, Congress designated the Holy Cross Wilderness Area, but the designating legislation failed to include Bolts Ditch as an existing water facility. • Florissant Fossil Beds National Monument Act: Would allow the park, which currently can’t grow beyond 6,000 acres, to add 280 acres that’s controlled by a local conservation group.
• Endangered Fish Recovery Programs Extension Act: Would extend an act that provides protections for four endangered fish through 2023.
• Amache Study Act: Would direct the National Park Service to study the Amache site for inclusion as a unit of the National Park System. Located near Granada, a town on the Eastern Plains, it was an internment site for Japanese Americans during World War II. Amache was designated as a National Historic Landmark in 2005.
• Arapaho National Forest Boundary Adjustment Act of 2017: Would adjust the boundary of the Arapaho National Forest to include a 10-lot subdivision known as the Wedge, which will protect the view of Rocky Mountain National Park and the headwaters of the Colorado River.
• Fowler and Boskoff Peaks Designation Act: Would name two unnamed peaks in the Uncompahgre National Forest after legendary Colorado mountain climbers Charlie Fowler and Christine Boskoff, who lost their lives in an avalanche in China in 2006.
• Pike National Historic Trail Study Act: Would authorize the National Park Service to study the feasibility of including in the National Trails System explorer Zebulon Pike’s route across the Midwest and West beginning in 1806.
• Wildfire Management Technology Advancement Act of 2017: Would bring firefighter safety into the 21st century, proponents say, by requiring the Forest Service and the Department of the Interior to begin providing GPS locations for crews on wildfires and using Unmanned Aircraft Systems to scout out and map wildfires in real-time.