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Letter: Vail’s support for the CORE Act

A resolution signed in 2014 by Mayor Andy Daly states the town of Vail’s support for the CORE Act. In additional letters signed by Mayor Dave Chapin in 2019, the town again reiterated that support in several letters to Sens. Michael Bennet and Cory Gardner, as well as Reps. Joe Neguse and Scott Tipton.

The wilderness is part of Vail’s DNA. We recreate on what was once the Holy Cross National Forest, one of the nation’s first national forests. In 1975, “Vail’s President” Gerald R. Ford, signed into law a bipartisan bill permanently protecting the nearby Flat Tops Wilderness, an area known as “the cradle of wilderness” for its role in inspiring Forest Service’s Arthur Carhart to push the agency to protect unspoiled areas throughout the United States. State Sen. Kerry Donovan’s grandfather hiked all over these mountains, helping to map what was to become the Eagles Nest Wilderness.

The areas to be protected by the Colorado Outdoor Recreation and Economy Act have been well-studied and thoroughly vetted by the public. The act will permanently protect some 400,000 acres of public lands throughout Colorado with provisions for recreation, wildlife, and wilderness preservation. It will expand the Eagle’s Nest and Holy Cross Wilderness areas near Vail. It will establish the United States’ first National Historic Landscape around Camp Hale, honoring the brave service members who fought and died to defend our democracy from tyranny, and who came home to build the outdoor recreation industry, including Vail founder Pete Seibert.



In its first meeting, the new Town Council instructed the staff to draft a resolution restating Vail’s support for the CORE Act. The Town Council will act on that resolution during its next meeting on Dec. 21.

Last week, I received a message from a longtime Eagle Valley resident and wildlife advocate. It had a picture of a bull elk bugling in the mountains of Colorado and this quote from President Teddy Roosevelt: “We have fallen heirs to the most glorious heritage a people ever received, and each one must do his part if we wish to show that the nation is worthy of its good fortune.”

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Jonathan Staufer

Vail


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