Colorado Outdoor Recreation and Economy Act

Colorado Outdoor Recreation and Economy Act

This bill provides for the conservation of specified lands in Colorado.

Specifically, the bill designates

• specified federal lands within the White River National Forest as components of the National Wilderness Preservation System,
• the proposed Williams Fork Wilderness as a potential wilderness area,
• the Tenmile Recreation Management Area,
• the Porcupine Gulch Wildlife Conservation Area,
• the Williams Fork Wildlife Conservation Area,
• the Camp Hale National Historic Landscape,
• the Sheep Mountain and Liberty Bell East Special Management Areas, and
• the Curecanti National Recreation Area.

The bill adjusts the boundary of the White River National Forest, the Rocky Mountain National Park Wilderness, and the Arapaho National Forest.

The bill directs the Department of Agriculture to permit by special use authorization nonmotorized access and use of the Bolts Ditch headgate and the Bolts Ditch within the Holy Cross Wilderness for the diversion of water and use, maintenance, and repair of the ditch and headgate by the town of Minturn.

The bill provides for the inclusion of additional federal lands in the National Wilderness Preservation System.

The bill provides for the cancellation of all Thompson Divide oil or gas leases.

The Department of the Interior shall carry out a program to lease federal methane from coal mines leaking methane in the North Fork Valley.