While there are many forms of protections for public lands, the GPLI has solely focused on congressional-level designations for key public lands in portions of the Gunnison County landscape. There are two primary types of congressional designations used in the GORP Act:

• Wilderness is a congressional designation that provides the highest form of protection for public lands and protects their natural, undeveloped, and ‘untrammeled’ character. Wilderness designation prohibits new mining and/or oil and gas drilling, commercial timber harvest and motorized and mechanized use; and emphasizes opportunities for solitude, primitive recreation and natural processes.

• Special Management Areas (SMAs) also provide permanent protection, but are more flexible in their design, and can accommodate a variety of uses and values identified by the community, SMAs typically prevent new road building and mineral development. They can be tailored to allow a wider variety of recreational uses or to focus management on particular uses or values, such as wildlife or watershed protection. More information about wilderness and special management areas can be found in the ‘Frequently Asked Questions’ section.

Establishing Wilderness areas and SMAs requires an Act of Congress. The GPLI Working Group discussed these two tools in the context of multiple values, including economic, traditional, ecological, scientific, and recreational uses. These designations help to protect the baseline conditions and determine future management necessary to preserve the integrity of the landscape and its uses for generations to come -- to keep things as they are.

By using special management areas and wilderness, the coalition was able to protect a greater variety of lands for water, wildlife, recreation, and other important values and uses.

Explore the different types of GORP land designations below in our interactive mapper.