§460zzz–4 Management of Conservation Area and Wilderness

Summary

Withdraws federal land inside the Conservation Area and the Wilderness from new public land claims, mining claims, and mineral or geothermal leasing, except for any valid rights that already existed on March 30, 2009. Grazing in the Conservation Area will follow Bureau of Land Management rules. Grazing that was happening in the Wilderness on March 30, 2009 may keep going under reasonable rules and certain guidelines. No protective buffer zone is created around the area. The Secretary may only buy or accept lands inside the boundaries from willing sellers, and those lands become part of the area and are managed under these rules. The Secretary may take actions needed to control fire, insects, disease, and nonnative invasive plants, and must keep private landowners reasonable access to their inholdings. Nothing here changes any water uses or water rights that existed on March 30, 2009, or any interstate water compacts, and it does not create new reserved federal water rights. The Secretary must secure any water rights needed to meet Wilderness purposes, following State law procedures and priorities, and may seek rights to keep stream flows. The Secretary should act promptly but not earlier than January 2009 to appropriate needed water rights. If the Colorado Water Conservation Board already has sufficient rights and a perpetual agreement for protection, the Secretary may rely on that; if not, the Secretary will pursue federal rights. Starting March 30, 2009, new water development in the Wilderness is barred, except limited livestock watering facilities. The Gunnison River’s mainstem is not part of the Wilderness; the Wilderness boundary at the river is at the river’s edge and moves with river level. The State keeps its fish and wildlife authority, and federal water quality rules upstream or in the Gunnison’s mainstem are not made stricter by these rules.