{"database": "press", "table": "releases", "rows": [["http://tipton.house.gov/press-release/column-hermosa-creek-bill-win-win-community", "Column: Hermosa Creek Bill Is a Win-Win for the Community", "2014-09-22", "2014", "2014-09", "Republican", "House", "CO", "Scott Tipton", "T000470", "tipton.house.gov", null, null, "legacy", "By U.S. Rep. Scott Tipton\nWhen I introduced the Hermosa Creek Watershed Protection Act in May of last year, I did so because the effort was community-driven and the goals outlined in it\u2014protecting both the land and multiple use of the land for future generations\u2014were fully supported by a broad coalition of local stakeholders.\nAs we worked in the House to advance this legislation, it became clear that some of the language in the initial draft needed to be clarified to ensure that those community goals would be carried out, without the risk of misinterpretation once the bill became law.\nAfter the conclusion of the community stakeholder process and introduction of the bill in the House, the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) announced the imminent closure of the Molas Pass Wilderness Study Area (WSA) adjacent to Hermosa to all motorized usage, based on changes in BLM management of WSA areas.\u00a0\nThis closure would result in the loss of several snowmobile rental businesses based on Molas Pass, and would be devastating to the local economy.\nThere was no support for the closure of Molas Pass, even from traditional opponents of motorized recreation, due to the long history of motorized usage and heavy reliance of the economies of local communities on winter motorized usage of the area. Yet, the BLM subsequently released a final Resource Management Plan for the area identifying Molas Pass as currently closed to motorized usage under all alternatives, and committed to permanent closure of the area to dispersed snowmobile usage and permitted grooming.\nAs a result of the BLM\u2019s actions, the language in the Hermosa Creek Watershed Protection Act would need to be clarified and strengthened in order to ensure that there would be no ambiguity for federal land management agencies to close down the area to snowmobiling, as the BLM intends to do against the community\u2019s wishes.\u00a0\nWe worked with the impacted community stakeholders to craft an amendment to ensure this legislation still accomplishes all of the stakeholders\u2019 original goals and that there would be no question of the bill\u2019s intent. This amendment, supported by stakeholders who helped craft the original bill, in no way changed the outcome of the legislation\u2019s goals agreed upon by all of those who have been engaged throughout this entire process.\nAfter the markup of the legislation, Scott Jones of the Colorado Snowmobile Association spoke to the clarifying amendment, saying, \u201cThe revised bill is critical to the protection of snowmobile usage on Molas pass as the original version of the legislation, drafted in May of 2013 fails to address management changes arbitrarily made by the BLM in their planning process and not released to the public until September of 2013. \u00a0This amended bill is a win-win for conservationists, recreationalists, the businesses and the entire community and we remain fully supportive.\u201d\nIt\u2019s important to note that leading up to the bill\u2019s introduction, the portion of the legislation that was community-driven pertained to the protection of the Hermosa Creek Watershed area. Under the amended version of the bill, all of the major wilderness and conservation provisions remain intact. The bill designates 37,735 acres of wilderness (an increase of 499 acres from the original version), and 68,289 acres under special management protections.\nThe land conservation protections in the Hermosa Creek Watershed Protection Act are iron-clad, and now under the amended version the language for limited recreational access is equally strong, and no longer open to misinterpretation or arbitrary land management decisions of regional BLM officials.\u00a0\nFor those who want permanent wilderness and land protections\u2014they are in the bill. And for those who want continued responsible multiple use of the land\u2014they are in there too. This is a win-win for all involved, and all community groups get everything they wanted from the very beginning.\nBecause of how critical this issue is to the economic health and future of communities in the region, we believed that it was important to do everything possible to advance the bill, which is why we aggressively pushed to get it through committee, and will continue to work to get it through the House. We are hopeful that Senator Bennet is able to do the same in the Senate.\nThis week\u2019s markup is not the end of the process or conversation, nor will House passage be. Once we have bills passed through both the House and Senate, should there be any differences, we can come together in conference to work them out and get this signed into law for the people of Southwest Colorado.", 1, "2026-03-30T12:14:52Z", "2026-03-30T12:14:52Z"]], "columns": ["url", "title", "date", "year", "month", "party", "chamber", "state", "member_name", "bioguide_id", "domain", "scraper", "source", "date_source", "text", "has_text", "collected_at", "updated_at"], "primary_keys": ["url"], "primary_key_values": ["http://tipton.house.gov/press-release/column-hermosa-creek-bill-win-win-community"], "units": {}, "query_ms": 0.8206469938158989, "source": "dwillis/congress-press", "source_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press", "license": "MIT", "license_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press/blob/main/LICENSE"}