| Contacts: | Erin Curtis, Public Information Officer, (970) 244-3097 |
BLM Looking for Public Input Into Recreational Opportunities
Montrose, CO -- If you like to recreate on public lands in western Colorado, the Bureau of Land Management wants to hear from you.
The Uncompahgre Field Office will hold a series of focus group meetings in February to gather public comments about recreational opportunities in Montrose, Delta, Mesa, Ouray, Gunnison and San Miguel counties. The information gathered will help guide the office as it begins revising its Resource Management Plan (RMP).
The new RMP will provide overall management direction for the next two decades for the almost 700,000 surface acres of public lands and 2 million subsurface acres of federal mineral estate managed by the BLM.
These community-based focus groups will help the BLM to better understand the public’s desires for recreation. Each 90-minute focus group is an opportunity for the public to tell the BLM what recreational places, activities and experiences are desired and important.
The staff at the Natural Resource and Land Policy Institute of Mesa State College have been contracted to facilitate these conversations. The meetings have been scheduled in multiple locations and varying times to make it convenient for the public to participate:
• Tuesday, Feb. 2 in Delta
Delta Technical College
5 to 6:30 p.m.
• Wednesday, Feb. 3 in Paonia
Paonia Community Center
12 – 1:30 p.m.
• Wednesday, Feb. 3 in Montrose
Montrose MSC Campus, Room 202
5 – 6:30 p.m.
• Tuesday, Feb. 9 in Ridgway
Ridgway Community Center
5 – 6:30 p.m.
• Wednesday, Feb. 10 in Telluride
Telluride Community Room
Noon – 1:30 p.m.
• Wednesday, Feb. 10 in Naturita
Naturita Community Room
5 – 6:30 p.m.,
For more information contact Tim Casey with Mesa State College at nrlpi@mesastate.edu or (970) 248-1095.
The BLM manages more than 245 million acres of public land, the most of any Federal agency. This land, known as the National System of Public Lands, is primarily located in 12 Western states, including Alaska. The BLM also administers 700 million acres of sub-surface mineral estate throughout the nation. In Fiscal Year (FY) 2011, recreational and other activities on BLM-managed land contributed more than $130 billion to the U.S. economy and supported more than 600,000 American jobs. The Bureau is also one of a handful of agencies that collects more revenue than it spends. In FY 2012, nearly $5.7 billion will be generated on lands managed by the BLM, which operates on a $1.1 billion budget. The BLM's multiple-use mission is to sustain the health and productivity of the public lands for the use and enjoyment of present and future generations. The Bureau accomplishes this by managing such activities as outdoor recreation, livestock grazing, mineral development, and energy production, and by conserving natural, historical, cultural, and other resources on public lands.
2465 South Townsend Avenue Montrose, CO 81401