Photo by: Jon Mullen
The Colorado Wildlands Project works to protect wild public lands managed by the Bureau of Land Management. We are dedicated to the conservation, climate resilience and equitable management of our public lands. We rally support around wildland protection in western Colorado, collaborating with partners across the Colorado Plateau.
The Colorado Wildlands Project is powered with coordinated support from our sponsor, Wilderness Workshop, and strategic partner, the Southern Utah Wilderness Alliance.
Background
Colorado’s 8.3 million acres of BLM-administered public lands make up one-third of the federal public lands in our state, yet only 8% of these lands are permanently protected through conservation designations, dramatically less than other public lands types in the state.
Colorado’s at-risk BLM wildlands include a half-million acres of Wilderness Study Areas and over two million acres of additional wilderness-quality lands meriting wilderness
designation or other permanent conservation measures. These diverse lands include the stunning redrock of the Dolores River, the sandstone canyons and rolling sagebrush steppe of the Dinosaur region, and some of Colorado’s most important wildlife habitat such as that found in Grand Junction’s Book Cliffs. In addition to BLM public lands being underrepresented in the conservation system, these lands are critical for climate adaptation and ecosystem resilience.