119-S-764 Journalist Public Summary

Public Summary: Colorado Outdoor Recreation and Economy (CORE) Act – S. 764 (119th)

Headline Summary: A Colorado public-lands package that protects additional high-country landscapes, limits new drilling and mining in the Thompson Divide, pilots methane capture from old coal mines, and creates a new National Park System recreation area at Curecanti.

What It Does: The bill expands and designates protected lands across Colorado. It adds new wilderness areas and wildlife conservation areas in and around the White River National Forest; creates special management areas in the San Juan Mountains; withdraws the Thompson Divide from new mineral leasing while offering credits to companies that voluntarily relinquish existing oil and gas leases; launches a pilot to capture or destroy methane leaking from active, inactive, or abandoned coal mines in the region; and establishes the Curecanti National Recreation Area (about 50,300 acres) as a formal National Park System unit with boating, hunting, and fishing allowed under federal and state rules. Existing grazing may continue where already established, and water rights are not altered. Emergency wildfire, insect, and disease treatments remain allowed where needed.

• Colorado’s two U.S. senators, Michael Bennet and John Hickenlooper, sponsor the bill. Support tends to come from conservation and outdoor recreation advocates, many local communities that rely on tourism and hunting/fishing, and residents who want the Thompson Divide shielded from new drilling.
• Supporters say the package safeguards wildlife habitat and migration corridors, secures clean water sources, sustains outdoor-recreation economies, and reduces greenhouse gases by tackling fugitive methane.

Who’s For It:

• Energy and mining interests who want future access to minerals in the Thompson Divide or within proposed conservation areas may oppose the withdrawals and added restrictions.
• Some motorized recreation users object to limits on new roads and motorized/mechanized access in certain areas.
• Skeptics also question federal costs, possible impacts on timber or mineral revenues, and whether new designations could complicate land management.

Who’s Against It:

What’s Next: S. 764 was introduced and referred to the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee, and the Subcommittee on Public Lands, Forests, and Mining held a hearing on December 2, 2025. The bill now awaits full committee consideration; if approved, it would move to the full Senate, then the House, and finally to the President.