Residents will have the opportunity to celebrate Colorado’s  inaugural  Public Lands Day on May 20. Made official in 2016, Colorado Public Lands Day will be held on the third Saturday of May each year to recognize the contribution of public lands to our state’s economy and its residents’ quality of life. Colorado has 24 million of acres of public lands, nearly one third of the state’s landscape, that allow hunters and anglers to have access to some of the best fish and game habitat in the world. These federal public lands are responsible for boosting Colorado’s economy by $722 million every year and provide 45,000 jobs to the state. Colorado Public Lands Day is an opportunity to publicize how important these lands are to our State and our heritage as sportsmen.

There is a small but dangerous movement brewing in this country that would transfer ownership of federal public lands to the states. TU and many other sportsmen’s organizations have been working to defend public lands from this catastrophic concept. On May 20, Coloradans now have a chance to make our voices heard and show the country how much we care about our public lands in the Centennial State. It's our chance to show legislators and the rest of the country that the majority of sportsmen and residents of Colorado strongly believe public lands need to remain public.

As part of your Colorado Public Lands Day celebration, we ask that you join us in tweeting or emailing a photo of a fish caught on public lands to Sen. Gardner and Sen. Bennet with the hash tag #CoPublicLandsDay and a message reminding them how important federal public lands are to Colorado’s residents. Also, send the photo to Colorado TU's Facebook and Twitter so we can keep track of the impact you have as a member of TU. CTU will be sending out an Action Alert with more instructions to come.  We all enjoy the opportunity to boast over a photo of a fish we have caught, now we can enjoy our accomplishment and help protect the places we love while we are doing it.

For more information on other Colorado Public lands Day event please visit: www.copubliclandsday.com.