Purchased, and yet closed to the public, Lone Mesa State Park rests in almost complete solitude 20 miles north of Dolores. Right now, a few cows graze peacefully amid the large aspen trees, but until Colorado State Parks can gather the funds to put in camp sites and trail systems, Lone Mesa will accommodate only livestock and wildlife.

Federal funds, however, could move the expected date of Lone Mesa and other state parks’ further development up by months, if not years, say park officials. This all depends on the fate of the Conservation and Reinvestment Act, which has passed the U.S. House and is scheduled for markup by the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee on Tuesday.

The measure would provide close to $45 million annually to Colorado for parks, wildlife, and a variety of conservation programs such as the Land and Water Conservation Fund, Wildlife Conservation and Restoration Fund, and projects within the Department of Natural Resources.

In addition, the funds, which are derived solely from offshore oil and gas revenues, would support coastal impact mitigation, wetlands preservation, urban park and recreation recovery, and provide further support to the payment in lieu of taxes program.

The measure handily passed the House in May by a vote of 315-102, but is likely to face substantial opposition from western senators who sit on the Energy and Natural Resources committee.

They, and other critics of the measure, oppose the conservation act on the basis that it threatens private property, expands government, and changes the way several conservation programs are funded.

Sterling Burnett, senior policy analyst for the National Center for Policy Analysis, said that although the bill stipulates that land can be acquired only from willing sellers, its main purpose is to add lands to the public-lands system.

"You can’t have a constitutional republic that’s founded on private property, if there is no private property. But there’s nothing to stop that from happening, theoretically, in this bill."

In the past, programs like the Land and Water Conservation Fund, which would be supported by the conservation act, have had to compete with budget items such as defense and education for money each year. As a result, Congress has never fully appropriated funds to the program at its authorized level of $900 million.

The new measure would legally require Congress to appropriate $1.6 billion every year to state and federal agencies for conservation programs, regardless of need. In addition, another $1.2 billion would be authorized for discretionary spending.

The conservation act would join the ranks of Social Security and Medicare as part of the mandatory spending Congress budgets before other programs every fiscal year.

State officials said that the money to be split between federal, state and local land agencies to acquire and conserve properties from willing sellers, is long overdue.

"Given the demand at the statewide level for more places to recreate outside, it has consistently outstripped the supply of funding," said Dean Winstanley, policy and special projects manager for Colorado State Parks.

In addition to using the money to develop four new state parks, Winstanley said the money could help the agency get closer to a 20-year renovation cycle of state parks, instead of its current cycle of 44 years.

Most of the federal funding for new land acquisition and conservation in the past has come from the Land and Water Conservation Fund, established in the ’60s. Congress has varied the amount of money it gives to the program over the years. Last year was the first time in five years Colorado’s state organizations received any money from the fund.