In Colorado, the U.S. Forest Service plans to let Pitkin County take over management of the Maroon Bells Scenic Area because it can no longer cover a $300,000 annual shortfall.
It plans to do this using a legal shortcut known as a categorical exclusion, which lets federal agencies skip the environmental review and public comment process required by the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) for decisions the government has already determined won’t significantly affect the environment. According to the Center for Western Priorities’ Lilly Bock-Brownstein, this could set a dangerous precedent for public lands.
The specific exclusion the Forest Service intends to use was written for small permits like mountain bike passes and backcountry ski guiding, not full management of one of the West’s most popular and iconic recreation areas.
Other areas have received much more thorough review than is proposed for the Maroon Bells. In 2024, the Forest Service proposed handing management of Sweetwater Lake, an 832-acre site in the same national forest, to Colorado Parks and Wildlife. It prepared a full environmental impact statement—a review that’s still underway. Maroon Bells would get none of that scrutiny.
Pitkin County has the third-highest per capita income in the United States and a dedicated open-space tax through 2040—a best-case scenario for this kind of deal. But if the precedent is set for categorical exclusions to be used as a shortcut to transfer land management, the same could happen at any underfunded site, in counties with fewer resources and less commitment to conservation, which could lead to logging, mining, and drilling.
According to Bock-Brownstein, the solution for budget and staffing shortfalls should be to properly fund the Forest Service.
“The Maroon Bells belong to everyone, and the public has a right to be part of the decision about how it is managed,” she wrote.
Quick hits
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Quote of the day
We need to modernize a system developed for a different era to respond to climate change, invasive species, increasingly severe wildfire, accelerating habitat loss, and evolving public expectations.”
—Mark Salvo, senior conservation advisor at Oregon Natural Desert Association, Ground Shift
Picture This
Put a bird on it.
Alright, folks. Tackle today like a hungry magpie or or similar cleaner bird perched on the head of a large mammal: focused, determined, and apparently willing to eat whatever’s crawling around up there.
You could also channel your inner elk or bison. Stand tall. Chew thoughtfully. Stare off into the distance as if you’ve just remembered an important meeting. And then crush those goals so thoroughly you’ll be saying, “Elk yeah.” Which is not a phrase anyone has ever needed to say, but here we are.
Fun fact: large herbivores like elk and bison are often visited by “cleaner birds,” such as magpies, which pick parasites from their skin or hair. The elk gets groomed. The magpie gets dinner. Everyone’s a winner. Maybe not the parasite.
NPS Photos
(Featured image: Maroon Lake at Maroon Bells. Photo by John Fowler, Flickr)