A Sept. 3, 2026 letter to Representative Jeff Hurd from Colorado Parks and Wildlife (CPW) Director Laura Clellan provides agency comments on the draft Greater Access for Multiple-use Experiences (GAME) Act.
The Act, which Hurd has yet to introduce in Congress, would create a land exchange, swapping close to 2,103 private acres on the Roan Plateau for about 2,158 acres of public land, managed by the Bureau of Land Management (BLM), most of which borders Out of Bounds ranch east of Glenwood Springs. The private lands would become public and the public lands private. The Roan Plateau parcels are in Game Management Unit (GMU) 22; the eastern parcels are in GMU 444.
CPW was involved in talks with proponents of the land exchange last summer, Clellan stated in the letter.
“At that time, there were several general areas being considered for an exchange with BLM in order to acquire the public lands in GMU 444,” she said. “CPW was asked to review these areas and provide input regarding their value for wildlife and outdoor recreation opportunities.”
Proponents of the exchange, including the Garfield County Commissioners, say that it would “open up” about 8,900 acres of public lands for hunting and other uses. Commission Chair Tom Jankovsky praised the exchange as a sort of boon to county residents.
“For me, as a county commissioner, there are large benefits,” he said at a July 21 public meeting. “And it has to do with hunting and access on the west end of the county.”
But Clellan’s letter stated that transferring the western parcels to the BLM will not provide new access to “landlocked public lands that were not previously accessible.”
Clellan wrote that there are both positive and negative outcomes.
“Given that the areas proposed for the exchange are located within different GMUs, and even different big game data analysis units… it makes it difficult to objectively compare these tradeoffs.”
According to the letter, the agency has declined to take a stance on the swap, but, even though the western parcels on the Roan Plateau “contain high-value hunting and outdoor recreation potential,” access to the land from existing public roads is steep, “which will limit the number of users able to utilize these lands.”
Clellan’s letter states that, if the land exchange becomes a reality, the agency supports Garfield County’s recommendation that the parcels acquired by Out of Bounds ranch be placed “in a permanent conservation easement that would preclude subdivision and development of the parcel, but allow current and future agricultural operations.”
Public concerns about the land exchange include questions about a legislative, versus administrative, land exchange, opportunities for public comment, adjacent property values, equal land values and access to public lands in the eastern portion of the exchange. The number of signatures on a Change.org petition against the GAME Act has reached 839 as of Sept. 29.
Colorado Parks and Wildlife Commission Chair Jay Tutchton told The Sun that he did not know about the proposed land exchange until Tuesday when he read an article about it.
“[The Commission has] not discussed this or been informed about this at all,” he said, speaking for himself and not on behalf of the commission. But, he added, the Commission doesn’t really have a reason to see it because the land exchange does not involve state money, land or leases.
“We [could] do rules and regulations and approve real estate transactions if CPW had money, lease or land ownership in some way,” he explained.
In a reply to The Sun’s request for more information about the letter, CPW Public Information Supervisor Travis Duncan said, “CPW does not have any comments on the proposed land exchange beyond what was included in Director Clellan’s letter.”