DENVER (AP) – Rep. Jared Polis is announcing plans to introduce legislation to designate land in Eagle and Summit counties as federal wilderness.
The Democrat is holding a news conference at the state Capitol Friday to discuss his bill, called the Eagle and Summit County Wilderness Preservation Act. He’ll be joined by Colorado environmental activists, political and business leaders, photographer John Fielder and adventurer Aron Ralston, whose 2003 ordeal in the Utah backcountry inspired the Oscar-nominated movie “127 Hours.”
Polis has proposed designating tens of thousands of acres in Colorado’s central mountains as federal wilderness and special management areas.
Wilderness advocates have pushed to eventually classify more than 300,000 acres in the area as wilderness. Motorized vehicles, development and certain activities are prohibited in federal wilderness.
(Copyright 2011 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)
