Colorado

Coloradans and Americans alike love the freedom our public lands provide. Snow‑capped mountain peaks, alpine forests, wildflower valleys and rushing rivers draw millions of people to the state each year. Colorado’s powdery slopes, rugged trails, whitewater rapids and Blue-Ribbon trout streams make the state a national outdoor recreation hub and a hallmark for some of America’s most beloved public lands.

All this love for public lands, combined with one of the fastest growing populations in the country, puts pressure on our lands and waterways already dealing with the effects of climate change, wildfires and oil, gas and coal development. Alongside our local partners, The Wilderness Society is working to ensure that future generations inherit lasting protections to our most cherished public lands.  

We are actively supporting communities and partners to advance major legislation and designation efforts to secure protections for some of the most threatened and treasured public lands across Colorado. 

Protecting public lands is essential—but so is ensuring everyone has the freedom to enjoy them and the incredible benefits they provide. In Colorado, we are driving policy and investment to reduce longstanding barriers to outdoor access. 

• The Wilderness Society supports the Colorado Outdoor Equity Grant Program (OEGP), which invests in communities that have historically faced barriers to outdoor recreation—including historically marginalized youth and families. Since launching in 2021, the program has awarded $10.5 million to more than 120 organizations across Colorado. In 2025, we helped champion House Bill 25‑1215, which increased and stabilized long-term funding for the OEGP by reallocating state lottery proceeds.
• The renaming of Mount Blue Sky reflects a broader commitment to acknowledging and reconciling historical injustice in our place names. In September 2023, the name change took effect via the U.S. Board on Geographic Names at the request of the Cheyenne & Arapaho Tribes, with the support of TWS, honoring ancestral ties and shifting the narrative of the mountain to be more welcoming.

We must ensure that Colorado’s wild places are not exclusive by default, but rather vibrant, equitable public assets in service of all communities. 

Our public lands face constant pressure—from extraction, overuse and unchecked development to efforts that would sell them off or sell them out. Whether it’s proposals to transfer or auction off public lands, or legislation that opens them to expanded oil and gas leasing, these threats put recreation access, wildlife habitat and cultural resources at risk.

Several proposals in Congress have attempted to force the sale of millions of acres of federally managed lands—including BLM and U.S. Forest Service lands—to pay for tax breaks benefiting the wealthy. In Colorado, this could have stripped protections from public lands with popular trails, campgrounds and hunting areas, handing them over for private development with little public input.

Thanks to broad, bipartisan opposition, TWS and our partners have successfully defeated these attempts to dispose of public lands—but similar attacks keep coming. We’re standing up for Colorado’s public lands every day to stop efforts to sell them off. 

 Over the last decade, Colorado’s public‑lands have benefited from several major wins — protections secured, histories honored and communities engaged. At The Wilderness Society we’re proud to have played a critical role alongside Tribes, local governments, partner organizations and communities in achieving these outcomes.

• Mobilizing statewide opposition to public land sell-offs. When proposals surfaced in the summer of 2025 to sell off national public lands for short-term profit, The Wilderness Society helped build a coalition of over 30 municipalities and county governments to push back. In a show of bipartisan unity, the Colorado General Assembly passed a nearly unanimous joint resolution opposing the sale or transfer of federal public lands. This effort laid the groundwork for dozens of local declarations affirming that Colorado’s wild places belong to the people—not private developers. 

• Protecting the Thompson Divide from future oil and gas leasing. In 2023, the Biden administration finalized a 20-year administrative withdrawal for the Thompson Divide, protecting over 220,000 acres of cherished public lands from future oil and gas leasing. The Wilderness Society played a key role in supporting the community-led effort, working alongside ranchers, hunters, outdoor businesses and local governments to safeguard this iconic landscape. This victory reflects how commitment to a long-term vision for conservation, paired with deep public support, can drive durable protections. 

• The designation of Camp Hale–Continental Divide National Monument. In October 2022, President Biden used the Antiquities Act to protect the Camp Hale and Tenmile Range area, one of Colorado’s most historically and ecologically significant landscapes. The Wilderness Society advocated alongside many partners, including veterans and outdoor recreation organizations, for the protections of this landscape—rich in military history (the Army’s 10th Mountain Division) and outdoor recreation heritage. This win underscores how conservation can respect history, recreation and wilderness alike. 

• Fully funding and reauthorizing the Land and Water Conservation Fund (LWCF). The LWCF is the premier federal tool for creating and improving parks, acquiring critical in‑holdings and safeguarding recreation and conservation lands. Thanks in part to our advocacy, this tool continues to support Colorado, helping ensure that local communities and wild places in our state are eligible for investment. Colorado has received roughly $357 million in funding over the past five decades, touching nearly every community across our state, and protecting places like the Great Sand Dunes National Park, Arapahoe-Roosevelt and Rio Grande National Forests and Rocky Mountain National Park.