CITIZENS GROUP FILES PROTEST AGAINST LAND EXCHANGE
Protest Puts Wexner Land Exchange on Hold
Silt Colorado, August 4th, 2014
Today, Colorado Wild Public Lands, Inc. filed a formal administrative protest against the BLM’s Sutey-Two Shoes land exchange. The Sutey-Two Shoes Land Exchange is a controversial land exchange initiated by Leslie Wexner and his wife Abigail, seeking to expand their private estate on the slopes of Mount Sopris. Mount Sopris dominates the skyline of the Roaring Fork Valley from Aspen to Glenwood Springs. The Sutey-Two Shoes Land Exchange would trade 1470 acres of public lands in Pitkin and Eagle counties for 557 acres of private lands in Garfield County and 112 acres of private land in Pitkin County. The land exchange has been approved by the BLM regional office in Silt, but will not take effect, pending the resolution of any formal protests filed by today. The BLM has at least 60 days to resolve these administrative protests. At least one other formal protest has been filed. The land exchange has been controversial from its beginning in 2009. Besides the Wexners, supp orters who were on board before the appraisals were released include the Town of Carbondale, the Red Hill Council, the Roaring Fork Mountain Bike Association, Eagle County, and numerous others. Opponents have focused primarily upon loss of public lands in an area of increasing population, shrinking recreational opportunities, and the appraisal and valuation of the federal lands in the exchange.
The group filing the protest is comprised of citizens who have objected to every step of the land exchange process. In an effort to quiet the controversy, the Wexners have changed their initial land exchange proposal by donating funds for Sutey ranch management plans, negotiated side agreements with their neighbors and the Pitkin County Commissioners, and included some additional private acreage in the exchange.
Hawk Greenway is a founding member and President of the Colorado Wild Public Lands. “Our public lands are simply too valuable to lose this much acreage in such a lopsided exchange” he said on Monday. “I have just never felt like it was an equal exchange, or in the public’s long term interest.” Hawk serves as a volunteer on the Pitkin County Open Space and Trails Board. In 2009, the Pitkin County Commissioners tasked the all-volunteer Board with investigating the proposed land exchange. The Pitkin County Open Space and Trails Board recommended that Pitkin County not support the exchange.
Colorado Wild Public Lands is a Basalt-based non-profit organization formed in 2014. Its members value the public lands and waters for their recreational, wildlife, open space and economic assets and want to ensure environmentally and economically sensible management of those lands. For more information, their website is www.Coloradowildpubliclands.
Tags: land exchange, Silt, Wexner