Title 16ConservationRelease 119-73

§460mmm Findings and purpose

Title 16 › Chapter CHAPTER 1— - NATIONAL PARKS, MILITARY PARKS, MONUMENTS, AND SEASHORES › Subchapter SUBCHAPTER CXXIV— - McINNIS CANYONS NATIONAL CONSERVATION AREA › § 460mmm

Last updated Apr 6, 2026|Official source

Summary

Creates the McInnis Canyons National Conservation Area and the Black Ridge Canyons Wilderness in Mesa County, Colorado, and Grand County, Utah. It covers Black Ridge and Ruby Canyons of the Grand Valley, Rabbit Valley, and the Black Ridge Canyons Wilderness Study Area. These lands are protected so people now and in the future can enjoy and use them. They have important scenic, recreational, grazing, fossil (paleontological), natural, wildlife, scientific, cultural, and educational values and are used for hiking, camping, and grazing.

Full Legal Text

Title 16, §460mmm

Conservation — Source: USLM XML via OLRC

(a)Congress finds that certain areas located in the Grand Valley in Mesa County, Colorado, and Grand County, Utah, should be protected and enhanced for the benefit and enjoyment of present and future generations. These areas include the following:
(1)The areas making up the Black Ridge and Ruby Canyons of the Grand Valley and Rabbit Valley, which contain unique and valuable scenic, recreational, multiple use opportunities (including grazing), paleontological, natural, and wildlife components enhanced by the rural western setting of the area, provide extensive opportunities for recreational activities, and are publicly used for hiking, camping, and grazing, and are worthy of additional protection as a national conservation area.
(2)The Black Ridge Canyons Wilderness Study Area has wilderness value and offers unique geological, paleontological, scientific, and recreational resources.
(b)The purpose of this subchapter is to conserve, protect, and enhance for the benefit and enjoyment of present and future generations the unique and nationally important values of the public lands described in section 460mmm–2(b) of this title, including geological, cultural, paleontological, natural, scientific, recreational, environmental, biological, wilderness, wildlife education, and scenic resources of such public lands, by establishing the McInnis Canyons National Conservation Area and the Black Ridge Canyons Wilderness in the State of Colorado and the State of Utah.

Legislative History

Notes & Related Subsidiaries

Editorial Notes

Amendments

2004—Subsec. (b). Pub. L. 108–400 substituted “McInnis Canyons” for “Colorado Canyons”.

Statutory Notes and Related Subsidiaries

Change of Name

Pub. L. 108–400, § 1(f), Oct. 30, 2004, 118 Stat. 2254, provided that: “Any reference in a law, map, regulation, document, paper, or other record of the United States to the ‘Colorado Canyons National Conservation Area’ shall be deemed to be a reference to the ‘McInnis Canyons National Conservation Area’.”

Effective Date

of 2004 Amendment Pub. L. 108–400, § 1(g), Oct. 30, 2004, 118 Stat. 2254, provided that: “This section [amending this section and section 460mmm–1, 460mmm–2, and 460mmm–6 of this title, enacting provisions set out as a note under this section, and amending provisions set out as a note under this section] and the

Amendments

made by this section take effect on January 1, 2005.”

Short Title

Pub. L. 106–353, § 1, Oct. 24, 2000, 114 Stat. 1374, as amended by Pub. L. 108–400, § 1(e), Oct. 30, 2004, 118 Stat. 2254, provided that: “This Act [enacting this subchapter and provisions listed in a table of Wilderness Areas set out under section 1132 of this title] may be cited as the ‘McInnis Canyons National Conservation Area and Black Ridge Canyons Wilderness Act of 2000’.”

Reference

Citations & Metadata

Citation

16 U.S.C. § 460mmm

Title 16Conservation

Last Updated

Apr 6, 2026

Release point: 119-73