Here in Southwest Colorado, our public lands are one of our most valued assets. We all relish our opportunities to get outside and enjoy them, which is why it is disappointing that our state senator, Ellen Roberts, chose to vote in favor of a bill that would threaten our access to these spaces. Senate Bill 232, which failed in the state Senate recently, would have diverted taxpayer dollars to study transferring control of national public lands to the state. It is part of a thinly veiled effort to fence off our public lands and potentially auction them to the highest bidder, and one of a series of bad bills being pushed in Colorado and across the West. These bills are backed by out-of-state special interests, and would be very expensive for Colorado taxpayers. Our state can’t afford the $300 million it would require to maintain national public lands, nor the hundreds of thousands of dollars we’d spend studying this absurd and dangerous idea. Why study something Coloradans don’t want? This is the wrong choice for Southwest Colorado. I’m glad the bill failed, but I am sincerely disappointed that our own Sen. Ellen Roberts didn’t vote in opposition to this awful attempt to lock us out of our public lands.
Fiona King
Cortez