Colorado adds 6,800 acres to wilderness, protects tribal access rights
S. 1341 — Sarvis Creek Wilderness Completion Act · Filed by John Hickenlooper (D-CO) · 1 cosponsor · Introduced Apr 8, 2025 · Hearing held
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What it does
This bill adds approximately 6,817 acres of land within Colorado's Routt National Forest to the existing Sarvis Creek Wilderness, designating it as protected wilderness under the 1993 Colorado Wilderness Act. The bill preserves Native American treaty rights and traditional tribal access for religious and cultural purposes, and permits the Forest Service to conduct fire, insect, and disease management activities within the new wilderness area.
Why we flagged it
The bill's sole operative mechanism is designating additional acreage as protected wilderness under existing federal law, a straightforward conservation measure with no private carve-outs or deregulatory provisions.
What the text implies
- Fire and disease management authority granted to the Secretary may permit active forest management (thinning, prescribed burns) within designated wilderness, which some conservation groups view as inconsistent with strict wilderness preservation standards.
- The bill's reference to 'applicable law' in section 4(a)(2) regarding tribal access leaves the scope of permitted uses to future regulatory interpretation, potentially creating ambiguity about what constitutes 'traditional' use.
Section numbers refer to the bill text the analysis read — linked under Primary records below.
Who it affects
Ordinary citizens gain access to additional protected public wilderness for recreation and conservation; environmental protections are strengthened. Native American tribes retain existing treaty rights and gain explicit statutory recognition of traditional cultural access, addressing a historical equity concern.
Named in the bill
U.S. Department of Agriculture, Secretary of Agriculture, Routt National Forest, Colorado Wilderness Act of 1993, Wilderness Act, Indian Tribes
Where it stands
1 cosponsor: 1 Democrats.
- Apr 8, 2025 — Introduced · Congress.gov: “Introduced in Senate”
- Apr 8, 2025 — Referred to Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources · Congress.gov: “Read twice and referred to the Committee on Energy and Natural Resources”
- Dec 2, 2025 — Hearing held · Congress.gov: “Committee on Energy and Natural Resources Subcommittee on Public Lands, Forests, and Mining. Hearings held”
Dates and quoted wording are Congress.gov's action record; the timeline shows status changes, not every procedural step.
Money around this bill
2 lobbying clients named this bill on 3 disclosure filings across 2 quarters, Mar 2026 to Jun 2026. Those filings disclosed $146,409 in lobbying spend. A filing names 27 bills on average, so that figure is what each filing reported, not a share belonging to this bill.
More lobbying clients named this bill than 41% of bills with at least one filing.
John Hickenlooper, the sponsor, reported $1,002,852 in PAC receipts in the 2026 cycle.
- Trout Unlimited — $120,000 on 1 filing
- Backcountry Hunters & Anglers — $26,409 on 2 filings
Lobbying Disclosure Act filings through Jul 20, 2026. A filing shows who paid to lobby on a bill it names, not what changed.
How this was measured
Analysis — Quorum's AI read the bill text published by Congress.gov (1,721 characters) on Oct 26, 2026. Section numbers in the findings refer to that text, linked below; transparency and hidden-provision scores are compared against the median of 16,580 analysed bills.
Status and sponsors — Congress.gov's bill record — actions, committee referrals and cosponsors — loaded nightly. The timeline shows status changes, not every procedural action.
Money — Senate Lobbying Disclosure Act filings whose specific-issue field names this bill for quarters ending Mar 2026 to Jun 2026. A filing's amount is reported whole beside the median number of bills a filing names; it is never divided across them. PAC receipts are FEC-reported contributions to the sponsor's candidate committee in the 2026 cycle.
As of — lobbying records through Jul 20, 2026 · page rendered 2026-10-26.
“Colorado adds 6,800 acres to wilderness, protects tribal access rights” QuorumCivic. https://share.quorumcivic.app/bill/119/s1341 Report an error
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