The need to rehabilitate this irrigation system is long overdue and the need for the Bureau of Indian Affairs to act, equipped with the proper resources, I believe is now.

It was very significant, a 20-fold increase.

Seventeen-thousand acres.

Seventy five hundred acres.

Senator Inouye has great credibility, as you know, in this Congress on these issues.

This bill would designate over 22,000 acres of National Forest and Bureau of Land Management land in southwestern Colorado as wilderness.

Finally, the bill would withdraw from mineral entry over 6,500 acres in the Naturita Canyon area, a striking canyon west of Telluride, Colorado.

I'm certainly willing and, I think, able to be engaged, as well, in moving those discussions along.

Just for the record, I'd be happy to work with you and his office on that issue and any others that might come up.

Let's keep the conversation alive in that regard, if we might.

It would also establish over 21,000 acres of National Forest as the Sheep Mountain Special Management Area.

I want to express my appreciation for the extensive work of Representative Salazar and his staff in putting this bill together and working with all stakeholders on this bill.

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I look forward, as one Senator, to supporting it when it comes to the floor of the Senate.

I was going to follow up, but I don't want to cut you off.

I want to focus on S. 2798, the National Forest Insect and Disease Emergency Act of 2009, which I introduced with Senator Risch.

I think Senator Risch and I will continue to probe your summaries and your conclusions.

Thank you, Senator Risch.

Us westerners hang together, whether we are Rocky Mountain westerners or we are far westerners like Senator Wyden.

We urge the Senate Energy & Natural Resources Committee to advance this legislation as soon as possible.

There are certainly those who would suggest there is a difference between timber harvesting and fuel reduction.

This sort of threat is akin to an emergency like any other natural phenomenon, and I believe we need to treat it as such.