Mission

What a beautiful day to see the valley and our public lands from above.

Colorado Public Lands Day was Saturday, May 17th! This statewide holiday was established in 2016 to celebrate the many ways that public lands are central to our economy and quality of life here in the Centennial State.

At least 8 separate grassroots community celebrations were hosted across the state on Saturday, including at the State Capitol. In Fruita, over 250 people turned out to the Copper Club Brewing Company to celebrate public lands and oppose the attacks currently underway in Congress.

One of the worst environmental bills in history, the 2025 budget reconciliation bill, just passed the House and is heading to the Senate. At stake are not just ecologically and culturally critical landscapes like our beloved Thompson Divide, but also the system of public lands and bedrock environmental laws that underlie all of EcoFlight’s work across the West. The bill included an especially destructive provision to sell off public lands without due process. This provision was quietly inserted into the budget bill at 11:40pm on May 6th after a 13-hour debate. We are grateful that this amendment was stripped from the bill after weeks of serious pressure from conservationists across the nation.

Coloradans are deeply concerned about the precedent that this sets for ALL public lands, including the spectacular landscapes we flew over on Friday, by allowing Congress to haphazardly dispose of this irreplaceable public resource without public input or public benefit.

On this week of Colorado Public Lands Day, we wish we could be celebrating, but EcoFlight and our partners at Conservation Colorado are working to amplify the severity of threats and challenges our public lands are facing, and empower concerned community members with tools to share their voices with their communities and elected representatives.

Click for photos or geo-referenced photos (download and open on Google Earth)