I
107TH CONGRESS
1ST SESSION
H. R. 2963
To establish the Deep Creek Wilderness Area, and for other purposes.
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
SEPTEMBER 25, 2001
Mr. MCINNIS introduced the following bill; which was referred to the
Committee on Resources
A BILL
To establish the Deep Creek Wilderness Area, and for other
purposes.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa-
tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled,
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.
This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Deep Creek Wilderness
Act’’.
SEC. 2. FINDINGS AND PURPOSE.
(a) FINDINGS.—Congress finds the following:
(1) Certain areas located in the White River
National Forest in Colorado along the Deep Creek
area should be protected and enhanced for the ben-
efit and enjoyment of present and future genera-
tions, including the areas making up the rugged and
remote limestone gorge formed by the Deep Creek
on the White River Plateau of the White River Na-
tional Forest in Garfield and Eagle Counties, Colo-
rado which has wilderness value and offers unique
and valuable scenic, geological, paleontological, sci-
entific, and recreational opportunities.
(2) The unique high elevation riparian areas,
paleontological, natural, and wildlife components en-
hanced by the rural western setting of the area, pro-
vide extensive opportunities for primitive rec-
reational activities, and are publicly used for hiking,
cave exploration, and solitude and are worthy of ad-
ditional protection as a wilderness area.
(3) The Deep Creek area has wilderness value
and offers unique geological, scenic, and species di-
versity.
(4) Deep Creek carves a rugged and remote
limestone gorge, forming a dramatic pristine canyon
over 2,500 feet deep and 13 miles long.
(5) The limestone strata have created ideal con-
ditions for the formation of caves, many of which
are the State of Colorado’s most outstanding caves.
(6) There are unique circumstances with re-
spect to the Deep Creek Wilderness Area. There are
valid, absolute, and decreed conditional water rights
upstream, adjacent, and downstream of the Wilder-
ness boundaries. These rights are private property
rights under State and Federal law. Nothing in the
Act is intended to eliminate or diminish the exercise
of these rights.
(7) It is possible to provide for proper manage-
ment and protection of the wilderness and other val-
ues of such lands in ways that provide for the rea-
sonable development of the upstream and adjacent
water rights adjudicated prior to the date of enact-
ment of this Act.
(b) PURPOSE.—The purpose of this Act is to con-
serve, protect, and enhance for the benefit and enjoyment
of present and future generations the unique and nation-
ally important values of the public lands depicted on the
Map, including geological, cultural, paleontological, nat-
ural, scientific, recreational, environmental, biological, wil-
derness, wildlife education, and scenic resources of such
public lands, by establishing the Deep Creek Wilderness
in the State of Colorado.
SEC. 3. DEFINITIONS.
In this Act:
(1) WILDERNESS AREA.—The term ‘‘Wilderness
Area’’ means the Deep Creek Wilderness Area estab-
lished by section 4.
(2) MAP.—The term ‘‘Map’’ means the map en-
titled ‘‘Proposed Deep Creek Wilderness Area’’ and
dated September 5, 2001.
(3) 
SECRETARY.—The 
term 
‘‘Secretary’’
means—
(A) the Secretary of Agriculture, acting
through the Chief of the Forest Service with re-
gard to lands over which that Secretary has ju-
risdiction; and
(B) the Secretary of the Interior, acting
through the Bureau of Land Management with
regard to lands over which that Secretary has
jurisdiction.
SEC. 4. DEEP CREEK WILDERNESS DESIGNATION.
(a) IN GENERAL.—There is established the Deep
Creek Wilderness Area in the State of Colorado.
(b) AREAS INCLUDED.—The Wilderness Area shall
consist of approximately 8,000 acres of public land as gen-
erally depicted on the Map.
SEC. 5. MANAGEMENT.
(a) WILDERNESS AREA.—The Secretary shall man-
age the Wilderness Area in a manner that—
(1) conserves, protects, and enhances the re-
sources of the Wilderness Area specified in section
2(b); and
(2) is in accordance with—
(A) the Wilderness Act (16 U.S.C. 1131 et
seq.), except that, with respect to any wilder-
ness areas designated by this Act, any reference
in the Wilderness Act to the effective date of
the Wilderness Act shall be deemed to be a ref-
erence to the date of the enactment of this Act;
(B) the Federal Land Policy and Manage-
ment Act of 1976 (43 U.S.C. 1701 et seq.); and
(C) other applicable law, including this
Act.
(b) USES.—The Secretary shall allow only such uses
of the Wilderness Area as the Secretary determines will
further the purposes for which the Wilderness Area is es-
tablished. Nothing in subsection (c) shall be construed to
affect discretionary authority of the Secretary under other
Federal laws to grant, issue, or renew rights-of-way or
other land use authorizations consistent with the other
provisions of this Act.
(c) WITHDRAWALS.—Subject to valid existing rights,
all Federal lands within the Wilderness Area are with-
drawn from—
(1) all forms of entry, appropriation, or disposal
under the public land laws;
(2) location, entry, and patent under the mining
laws; and
(3) the operation of the mineral leasing, min-
eral materials, and geothermal leasing laws, and all
amendments thereto.
(d) MOTORIZED VEHICLE USE.—
(1) IN GENERAL.—Except as needed for admin-
istrative and emergency response purposes, use of
motorized vehicles in the Wilderness Area shall not
be allowed.
(2) COLORADO ARMY NATIONAL GUARD.—
(A) IN GENERAL.—Pursuant to the Memo-
randum of Understanding, dated August 4,
1987, between the Colorado Army National
Guard, the Bureau of Land Management, and
the United States Forest Service, the Colorado
Army National Guard shall continue to be per-
mitted to conduct aerial navigation training ma-
neuver exercises over certain lands within the
Deep Creek area.
(B) MODIFICATION OF MEMORANDUM OF
UNDERSTANDING.—Conditions 
and 
require-
ments in the memorandum of understanding re-
ferred to in subparagraph (A) may be modified
subject to the agreement of all parties thereto.
(e) HUNTING AND FISHING.—
(1) IN GENERAL.—Hunting and fishing shall be
allowed within the Wilderness Area in accordance
with applicable laws and regulations of the United
States and the State of Colorado.
(2) AREA AND TIME CLOSURES.—The head of
the Colorado Division of Wildlife, or the Secretary,
after consultation with the Colorado Division of
Wildlife, may issue regulations designating zones
where, and establishing limited periods when, hunt-
ing or fishing shall be prohibited in the Wilderness
Area for reasons of public safety, administration, or
public use and enjoyment.
(f) GRAZING.—
(1) IN GENERAL.—Except as provided by para-
graph (2), the Secretary shall issue and administer
any grazing leases or permits in the Wilderness Area
in accordance with the same laws (including regula-
tions) and Executive orders followed by the Sec-
retary in issuing and administering grazing leases
and permits on other land under the jurisdiction of
the Forest Service and Bureau of Land Manage-
ment, respectively.
(2) GRAZING IN WILDERNESS.—
(A) FOREST SERVICE LANDS.—Grazing of
livestock in the Wilderness on lands that are
under the jurisdiction of the Forest Service
shall be administered in accordance with the
provisions of section 4(d)(4) of the Wilderness
Act (16 U.S.C. 1133(d)(4)), in accordance with
the guidelines set forth under the heading
‘‘Grazing in National Forest Wilderness’’ in
House Report 96–617 of the 96th Congress.
(B) BLM LANDS.—Grazing of livestock in
the Wilderness on lands that are under the ju-
risdiction of the Bureau of Land Management
shall be administered in accordance with the
provisions of section 4(d)(4) of the Wilderness
Act (16 U.S.C. 1133(d)(4)), in accordance with
the guidelines set forth in Appendix A of House
Report 101–405 of the 101st Congress.
(g) NO BUFFER ZONES.—The Congress does not in-
tend for the establishment of the Wilderness Area to lead
to the creation of protective perimeters or buffer zones
around the Wilderness. The fact that there may be activi-
ties or uses on lands outside the Wilderness that would
not be allowed in the Wilderness Area shall not preclude
such activities or uses on such lands up to the boundary
of the Wilderness Area consistent with other applicable
laws.
(h) ACQUISITION OF LAND.—
(1) IN GENERAL.—The Secretary may acquire
nonfederally owned land within the exterior bound-
aries of the Wilderness Area only through purchase
from a willing seller, exchange, or donation.
(2) MANAGEMENT.—Land acquired under para-
graph (1) shall be managed as part of the Wilder-
ness Area in accordance with this Act.
(i) INTERPRETIVE FACILITIES OR SITES.—The Sec-
retary may establish minimal interpretive facilities or sites
in cooperation with other public or private entities as the
Secretary considers appropriate. Any facilities or sites
shall be designed to protect the resources referred to in
section 2(b).
(j) WATER RIGHTS.—
(1) EFFECT ON WATER RIGHTS.—Nothing in
this Act shall affect any absolute or conditional
water rights or their diversions and conveyance fa-
cilities or the maintenance thereof decreed prior to
the date of the enactment of this Act.
(2) COLORADO
WATER
LAW.—The Secretary
shall follow the procedural and substantive require-
ments of the law of the State of Colorado in order
to obtain and hold any new water rights with respect
to the Wilderness Area.
(3) STATUTORY
CONSTRUCTION.—Nothing in
this Act shall—
(A) constitute or be construed to constitute
either an express or implied reservation of any
water or water rights with respect to the lands
designated as wilderness by this Act;
(B) affect any conditional or absolute
water rights in the State of Colorado existing
on the date of the enactment of this Act; or
(C) be construed as limiting, altering,
modifying, or amending any of the interstate
compacts or equitable apportionment decrees
that apportion water among and between the
State of Colorado and other States.
(4) NEW PROJECTS.—
(A) As used in this paragraph, the term
‘‘water resource facility’’ means irrigation and
pumping facilities, reservoirs, water conserva-
tion works, aqueducts, canals, ditches, pipelines,
wells, hydropower projects, and transmission
and other ancillary facilities, and other water
diversion, storage, and carriage structures.
Such term does not include any such facilities
related to or used for the purpose of raising
crops or livestock grazing.
(B) Except as otherwise provided in this
Act, on and after the date of the enactment of
this Act, neither the President nor any other of-
ficer, employee, or agent of the United States
shall fund, assist, authorize, or issue a license
or permit for the development of any new water
resource facility within the wilderness area des-
ignated by this Act.
(C) Except as provided in this paragraph,
nothing in this Act shall be construed to affect
or limit the use, operation, maintenance, repair,
modification, or replacement of or access to
water resource facilities in existence on the date
of the enactment of this Act within the bound-
aries of the Wilderness.
SEC. 6. MAPS AND LEGAL DESCRIPTIONS.
(a) IN GENERAL.—As soon as practicable after the
date of the enactment of this Act, the Secretary shall sub-
mit to Congress a copy of the Map and a legal description
of the Wilderness Area.
(b) FORCE AND EFFECT.—The Map and legal de-
scriptions shall have the same force and effect as if in-
cluded in this Act, except that the Secretary may correct
clerical and typographical errors in the Map and the legal
descriptions.
(c) PUBLIC AVAILABILITY.—Copies of the Map and
the legal descriptions shall be on file and available for pub-
lic inspection in—
(1) the Office of the Director of the Bureau of
Land Management;
(2) the Office of the Chief of the Forest Serv-
ice;
(3) the District Office of the Bureau of Land
Management in Colorado; and
(4) the Office of the Regional Forester of the
Forest Service in Colorado, and of the White River
National Forest, Forest Ranger Office in Glenwood
Springs, Colorado.
(d) MAP CONTROLLING.—In the case of a discrep-
ancy between the Map and the descriptions, the Map shall
control.
SEC. 7. PUBLIC ACCESS.
The Secretary shall continue to allow private land-
owners reasonable access to inholdings in the Wilderness
Area.
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