Federal forests, BLM lands, and State Trust Lands—three different systems, one coordinated transformation
Colorado’s public lands are undergoing a synchronized transformation most people haven’t noticed. While attention focuses on individual controversies—a forest plan here, a grazing permit there—a broader pattern is emerging across three separate land management systems.
Federal forests are hiring contractors with explicit rewilding commitments to write baseline assessments. The Bureau of Land Management just finalized plans to expand wilderness restrictions across Western Slope recreation areas. And Colorado’s State Land Board appointed a director whose career has been spent converting working ranchland to wildlife habitat.
These aren’t three isolated developments. There are three mechanisms advancing the same vision: large-landscape conservation that phases out traditional uses in favor of ecological restoration.
Here’s what’s happening—and what it means for anyone who hunts, ranches, rides, or makes their living in Colorado’s High Country and Western Slope.
Layer One: Federal Forests and the AECOM Connection
Several High-Country forests completed plan revisions years ago: San Juan in 2013, Rio Grande in 2020. The Grand Mesa, Uncompahgre, and Gunnison National Forests finished a seven-year revision in June 2024, allocating 823,000 acres as wildlife management areas with capped trail expansion.
But two forests matter right now.
The Pike-San Isabel National Forests have administered both mountain forests and eastern grasslands under a single 1984 plan. In November 2024, the Forest Service announced it would split these apart, creating a separate plan specifically for the Cimarron and Comanche National Grasslands.
The Forest Service hired AECOM to write the environmental assessment—the baseline analysis that shapes all future planning decisions.
Who is AECOM? A global infrastructure firm headquartered in Dallas with Colorado offices in Denver, Lakewood, Pueblo, Colorado Springs, Fort Collins, and Greenwood Village. The company’s website explicitly promotes “enabling rewilding at scale” and describes rewilding as “inherently good.” AECOM runs rewilding projects in Scotland and Australia focused on large-landscape restoration that phases out agriculture.
The draft assessment was released in September 2025 for public comment. That window closed on October 28, 2025. The assessment will shape how 440,000 acres of shortgrass prairie are managed for the next 15-20 years—decisions about grazing, recreation, and land use that directly affect ranching communities across southeast Colorado and southwest Kansas.
This matters because the assessment phase isn’t neutral data collection. It frames baseline conditions, identifies “problems,” and defines “needs for change” that drive all subsequent alternatives. When the contractor writing your baseline explicitly believes rewilding is inherently good, what baseline do you think you’ll get?
And Then There’s White River
The White River National Forest—home to Vail, Aspen, Breckenridge, and 12 commercial downhill ski areas—is gearing up for plan revision. The current plan dates to 2002. Forest officials indicated they’ll begin the revision process in 2025.
At 2.3 million acres covering some of Colorado’s most valuable recreation real estate, the revision will address climate change, trail maintenance, wilderness, and the balance between tourism and conservation.
We don’t yet know who will write White River’s assessment. That contractor hasn’t been named. But AECOM is already working for Colorado’s Forest Service on the grasslands. They have offices across Colorado. They’re positioned to pursue this contract.
The assessment phase launches the entire planning process. This is when baseline assumptions get locked in for 15-20 years.
Layer Two: BLM Lands and Your Mountain Biking Trails
While attention focuses on national forests, the Bureau of Land Management quietly completed major planning updates in October 2024 for two field offices covering much of Colorado’s Western Slope.
The Grand Junction Field Office and Colorado River Valley Field Office finalized Resource Management Plans that will guide management of approximately 1.5 million surface acres and over 1.9 million acres of federal mineral estate across the Western Slope.
Why does this matter? Because BLM lands are where mountain biking happens.
Fruita’s world-famous trail systems—18 Road, Kokopelli Trail, Lunch Loops—sit on BLM land, not Forest Service property. So do the Palisade Rim trails, Gateway area routes, and numerous other iconic Western Slope riding destinations that draw visitors from around the world.
The updated plans designate areas closed to fluid mineral leasing, expand wilderness study areas, and establish new zones “managed to protect wilderness characteristics.” The Grand Junction plan specifically limits travel and establishes group size restrictions. The Colorado River Valley plan expanded the Castle Peak Wilderness Study Area and identified additional lands with wilderness characteristics.
Mountain bikers, already mobilized around Forest Service planning issues, may not realize that some of their most critical battles are being fought on BLM turf. The 2024 RMP updates were finalized after public comment periods that generated thousands of responses—but drew less attention than Forest Service controversies.
Layer Three: State Trust Lands and the Buffalo Commons Connection
Colorado’s State Land Board appointed Nicole Rosmarino as director in June 2025. Her appointment connects directly to the “Buffalo Commons” vision—a decades-old proposal to depopulate the Great Plains and restore it to pre-settlement prairie and wildlife.
Rosmarino co-founded the Southern Plains Land Trust, which purchases ranchland and converts it to native prairie. The trust’s April 2024 Instagram post: “Cows be gone! We only allow native grazers.”
Before Southern Plains Land Trust, Rosmarino was wildlife program director for WildEarth Guardians and sits on The Rewilding Institute’s Rewilding Leadership Council. The trust’s 43,000-acre Heartland Ranch removed cattle for bison, aiming to restore conditions approximating the 1830s.
Jay Tutchton—Southern Plains Land Trust’s general counsel and Heartland Ranch preserve manager—also serves as a Colorado Parks and Wildlife Commissioner, connecting state wildlife policy with private land acquisition.
The State Land Board manages 2.8 million surface acres, 98% leased for agriculture, generating $282 million for Colorado public schools in FY2023-24. Rosmarino’s appointment drew immediate concern from agricultural groups given her organization’s explicit mission to end ranching on acquired lands.
The Three-Layer Blueprint
**Federal Forests:** AECOM writing grasslands assessment, positioning for High Country contracts. Company explicitly promotes rewilding “at scale.”
**Federal Rangelands (BLM):** October 2024 RMP updates expanding wilderness study areas across Western Slope mountain biking destinations.
**State Trust Lands:** Director with track record of removing cattle, “human-made structures,” and organizational affiliations connecting federal land advocacy with private land acquisition.
These aren’t isolated developments. Ideological alignment produces coordinated results without requiring formal conspiracy.
The Geographic Overlap
The affected areas span Colorado’s High Country and Western Slope. In some counties, all three land types overlap—BLM lands with newly finalized RMP updates, State Trust Lands now under new management direction, and Forest Service lands either recently revised or entering the planning cycle.
What’s at Stake
**Ski areas** operate on Forest Service land under special use permits. Plan revisions affect expansion, snowmaking, summer operations, and mountain bike development.
**Mountain biking** happens across all three land types. The October 2024 BLM updates directly affect Fruita’s world-class trails. Forest Service plans determine access in wilderness areas.
**Hunting, fishing, and grazing** face pressure from multiple directions: Forest Service assessments, BLM wilderness designations, and State Land Board policy shifts toward ecological restoration.
**Commercial operations**—guiding, outfitting, filming—depend on special use permits that stem from plan direction.
What You Can Do
The Cimarron/Comanche grasslands public comment period closed October 28, 2025. The Forest Service is now reviewing comments and will prepare a need-to-change document and begin developing plan alternatives. Watch for the draft plan release, which will include another comment opportunity.
For White River, demand transparency about contractor selection before the assessment begins. Who will write it? What’s their track record on rewilding?
BLM planning is final, but implementation decisions—travel management, wilderness evaluations, project approvals—follow. Local governments and recreation groups need sustained engagement.
State Trust Land management happens through public board meetings. Lease renewals, land exchanges, and policy changes require board approval and public comment.
The Bigger Picture
Colorado isn’t experiencing isolated controversies over individual forest plans or field office updates. It’s experiencing a synchronized transformation across three land management systems—federal forests, federal rangelands, and state trust lands.
AECOM’s role in the grasslands assessment isn’t random. It’s part of a pattern where contractors with explicit rewilding commitments write baseline analyses that shape decades of management. Where BLM wilderness characteristics designations restrict mountain biking. Where the State Land Board director’s career has been spent converting ranchland to wildlife habitat.
The common thread: large-landscape conservation prioritizing ecological restoration over human uses.
The question is whether that vision should be implemented through processes designed to look like balanced multiple-use planning while actually advancing a predetermined outcome.
Other articles in this issue examine AECOM’s corporate commitments in detail and trace the Buffalo Commons ideology from 1987 academic papers to today’s policy appointments. This investigation shows how those ideas are being implemented simultaneously across three different land management systems in Colorado.
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*This investigation tracked planning processes across six national forests, four BLM field offices, and Colorado State Trust Lands through November 2025. Research included Federal Register notices, planning documents, contractor disclosures, and public records. *
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