The deadline has passed for public comments on yet another resource management plan, this one from the BLM’s Royal Gorge field office that encompasses more than seven million acres of public lands in 38 eastern counties including Weld.

The comments were just the first step in what will be an excruciatingly long process, with the final decision not due until 2019 on how the lands will be managed for energy development, grazing, recreation, forest firefighting, and other uses.

For those keeping political score, this comes well after the election of Colorado’s U.S. Senate seat next year, but we’ll come back to Michael Bennet in a moment.

What caught our attention, were the official comments submitted by the Center for Biological Diversity on behalf of all conservation groups, apparently, and “artists.”

It kind of makes sense that these folks have been drafted into the “No Trespassing” battle plan of greenies. Instead of access to our public lands – soon to be no man’s land – these artists can just draw us pictures of our property.

Here’s what the greenies are demanding in the redrawn management plan, to the surprise of no one:

“The welfare of future generations depends on our generation acting now to keep fossil fuels safely in the ground,” said Taylor McKinnon of the Center for Biological Diversity.

Lefty wildlife photographer John Fielder chimed in against energy development, telling the federal government “to show this industry the door and get back to selling blue sky, clean air and water, canyons and wildflowers with the recreation and tourism industries.”

Fascinating, considering these folks did not defend recreation in their comments, and the future of different facets of recreation are most certainly on the chopping block – vehicle access always the first to go.

As for their alleged support of the tourism industry, here’s an interesting little fact — fossil fuels are required to transport tourists into the state and onto our public lands. It’s needed for electricity to power hotels, prepare meals in restaurants, and build the mountain bikes, fishing poles and guns used on public lands.

As for Bennet, he won’t publicly enter the fray unless he’s forced, but we already know where he stands.

Not only does he support the mass rewriting of resource management plans across the country that are restricting public use and access, he’s lobbying Congress to pay for it.