I urge everyone to contact our U.S. Rep. Joe Neguse and Sens. Michael Bennet and John Hickenlooper to voice your support for the passage of the CORE Act. Also, urge your out-of-state friends to contact their representatives and senators to do the same.

Now is the time for all of Colorado’s elected officials to join veterans, sportsmen, ranchers, community leaders, conservationists, business owners, county officials and voters from the central mountains to the Western Slope to the San Juans in protecting public lands for the future. For decades, local communities have been calling for protection of historic sites, recreation areas, unspoiled wilderness lands, waterways and wildlife habitat through individual pieces of legislation. The CORE Act bundles these requests into one comprehensive package that can be a down payment on our national commitment to protect 30% of our nation’s lands and water by 2030. It’s a ready-to-go solution that Congress should pass ASAP.

Along with boosting the outdoor recreation economy in Colorado, the CORE Act honors our World War II veterans by designating Camp Hale as the nation’s first National Historic Landscape. It also safeguards backcountry hunting opportunities and important big game habitat, and protects the land bridge and critical wildlife migration corridor over Interstate 70 at the Eisenhower Tunnel.

The CORE Act will protect some of Colorado’s most iconic landmarks, including three fourteeners (Wilson Peak, Mount Sneffels and Quandary Peak), the Thompson Divide area of the White River National Forest, Kebler Pass and its largest-in-Colorado aspen forest, Ice Lake Basin and much of the Tenmile Range above Breckenridge. To learn more about the CORE Act, go to COREAct.org.