OURAY – The Ouray Board of County Commissioners will reiterate its support in the form of a letter for Congressman John Salazar’s proposed San Juan Mountains Wilderness legislation. The legislation includes adding 13,224 acres of land to the existing Mt. Sneffels Wilderness Area by the Whitehouse addition and adding 9,086 acres of land to the existing Mt. Sneffels Wilderness Area by the Liberty Bell and Last Dollar additions.

Salazar unveiled the draft of the San Juan Mountains Wilderness legislation on July 16. The proposed bill would protect 63,475 acres of public land on the Grand Mesa, Uncompahgre and Gunnison and San Juan National Forests and San Juan Bureau of Land Management Resource Area. All of the acreage affected by the proposal is in Ouray, San Miguel and San Juan counties and has previously been supported by the commissioners of those three counties.

Along with the added acreage to the Mt. Sneffels Wilderness Area, the proposed legislation also includes the addition of 3,374 to the existing Lizard Head Wilderness Area by the Blackface, Sunshine and Wilson additions, 8,614 acres of the McKenna Peak Wilderness Study Area will be designated as Wilderness.

In addition, 22,582 acres will be designated as the Sheep Mountain Special Management Area (currently permitted uses including helisking will be allowed to continue indefinitely, but no new roads or other development will be permitted) and 6,595 acres will be withdrawn from eligibility for mineral leasing in Naturita Canyon. No other uses in the canyon will be impacted.

On Monday, the Ouray County Commissioners agreed to draft and send a letter to Salazar in support of the legislation. The previous board had already supported the proposed legislation by resolution but since Commissioner Lynn Padgett was not sitting on that board at the time, the commissioners agreed to reiterate its support from the current board. A letter to Salazar from the board will be drafted could be approved for submittal by next week.

“The resolution was passed by the previous board,” Commissioner Keith Meinert said. “With one new board member, it is appropriate to state that the current board continues to support that resolution.”

Meinert went on to say that while the commissioners support the proposed legislation and provided input for its drafting he wanted to dispel any notion that the legislation was drafted by the board or county staff members.

“It has our input and our ideas but it was not an attempt by the board or staff to direct the outcome of the discussions,” Meinert said. “I think we need to be very careful in the way this gets portrayed to the public that there is a process and we are trying to follow that process in encouraging input from all sectors of the public.”

A summary of the proposed legislation and additional information – including maps, photos, and the full bill text – can be found on Salazar’s website at: http://www.house.gov/salazar/sjmw.shtml. Salazar’s office is currently taking public comments on the legislation until Aug. 16.