The Colorado congressional delegation has agreed on legislation that will designate 249.339 acres of Rocky Mountain National Park land as wilderness.
The proposal for the park wilderness was first made during the Nixon administration, and has taken about 30 years to come to fruition.
In addition to designating the wilderness, the legislation will allow park backcountry to be managed to reduce the danger of fire and deal with the pine bark beetle epidemic. It will also allow possible construction of a bike trail near Grand lake.The compromise also deals with a major stumbling block by protecting water rights out of the park associated with the Grand River Ditch and the Colorado Big Thompson Project.
Rep. Mark Udall (D-Colo.) said, “For 8 years, I have worked on legislation to designation Rocky Mountain National Park as wilderness.
