For the eighth straight year, U.S. Rep. Mark Udall, D-Colo., has introduced a bill that would designate a large swath of Rocky Mountain National Park as a wilderness area.
“Rocky Mountain National Park … possesses some of the most pristine and striking alpine ecosystems and natural landscapes in the continental United States,” Udall said in a statement.
Udall’s bill, introduced Thursday to the House of Representatives, is identical to one Sen. Ken Salazar, D-Colo., has introduced in the Senate. It would tab 250,000 acres in Rocky Mountain National Park – about 94 percent of the park’s area, including Longs Peak – as wilderness, meaning there could be no consumptive uses there, such as logging, motorized vehicles or permanent structures.
If the bills pass, the designation would not affect current roads, parking areas, utility corridors or developed areas within the park.
In fact, it wouldn’t really change much about how the National Park Service manages the park, said park service spokeswoman Kyle Patterson. Since the Nixon administration first recommended large parts of the park be designated as wilderness in 1974, the park has been managing those areas as such, just in case such a designation might occur, Patterson said.
Udall, of Eldorado Springs, has been trying since he came into office in 1999 to win the designation, said his spokesman, Lawrence Pacheco. The bill introduced Thursday replaces a similar one he introduced in the summer.
But Udall believes this new bill has a great chance for success because it has the backing of the communities and counties surrounding the park.
Estes Park Mayor John Baudek said that in the past, neighboring communities have been concerned about the precise boundaries of the wilderness area and that the designation might be intended to restrict cars coming into the park. New global positioning technology and assurances from the park have made those points moot, he said.
“Being a tourist town, being a gateway to Rocky Mountain National Park, it’s in our best interest for the park to be a pristine place,” Baudek said.
Staff writer John Ingold can be reached at 720-929-0898 or jingold@denverpost.com.
