Pass the GORP Act
Grand Junction Daily Sentinel editorial
October 18, 2025
The GORP Act has been sidelined — like all federal legislation — during the government shutdown.
But it stands as a sharp contrast to the top-down dysfunction in Washington, D.C. It’s locally driven, bipartisan and cuts against the grain of a Trump administration prerogative to open more public lands to development.
Colorado’s U.S. senators Michael Bennet and John Hickenlooper, both Democrats, first introduced the Gunnison Outdoor Resources Protection (GORP) Act in 2024 to further protect more than 730,000 acres of public land on the Western Slope.
It languished in Congress, but in May Rep. Jeff Hurd, R-Grand Junction, introduced the legislation in the House, elevating both the importance of public land protections to Coloradans and the collaborative approach we take to secure them.
The GORP Act has its roots in the Gunnison Public Lands Initiative, a broad coalition of ranchers, recreationists, conservationists and local leaders who came together a decade ago to create a balanced vision for public land management in the Gunnison Basin. Through extensive coordination and public input, the GPLI formed the basis for the GORP Act.
Symbolically, this legislation represents how we do business on the Western Slope — coming together across the political spectrum and lived experience to find middle ground based on compromise. It comes at a time when many justifiably feel that too many decisions are made without involving the local communities who are most impacted by those decisions.
The GORP Act uses a variety of land management tools to safeguard the landscapes that define the Gunnison Basin and meet the needs of local communities. The bill uses more types of designations — special management areas, recreation management areas, wildlife conservation areas, protection areas, a scientific research and education area, and wilderness — than any other public lands bill in Colorado to date. In the face of growing visitation and shifting land use, the GORP Act ensures that public lands in the Gunnison Basin remain healthy, accessible and productive — today and for future generations.
The Gunnison Basin is a landscape worth protecting. The undeveloped character is ideal for recreation, which underpins the local economy.
A report released by the Outdoor Alliance in November 2018 shows that paddlers, climbers, hikers, skiers and mountain bikers who visited the Grand Mesa, Uncompahgre and Gunnison (GMUG) National Forests generated more than $445 million in annual spending.
The GORP Act would ensure that thousands of acres of habitat and hundreds of miles of trail retain their wild character for world-class recreational use.
But recreational interests are just part of a delicate balance between user groups. The GORP Act enshrines multi-use purposes of the land to the benefit of ranchers, water districts, hunters and anglers and motorized activities like dirt biking and snowmobiling.
It also maximizes conservation the basin’s conservation potential. Conservation and recreation-focused designations will protect critical habitat for wildlife. Restoring riparian areas and wet meadows promotes climate resilience. The GORP Act supports ranching by protecting water quality, securing grazing access and linking healthy public lands with conserved private ranchlands.
As we reported, the bill includes numerous priorities for Delta County, including provisions to transfer a special use permit for the continued operation of a motor boat on the Gunnison River, ensure the right of the public to access the boat ramp at the Gunnison Forks Day Use Area, and remove BLM lands in the North Fork Valley from future oil and gas leasing availability.
The bill also would transfer the Pinecrest Ranch, owned by the Ute Mountain Ute Tribe, into a trust. Instead of functioning as private property, the parcel would become sovereign land of the tribe, restoring a formal connection to its ancestral homeland.
This is legislation that will safeguard recreation, economic vitality and cultural tradition for generations to come and we urge Congress to recognize that Coloradans want these protections.
