AG Testimony: Before the House Committee on Agriculture, Water & Natural Resources regarding HB 25-1023 (Feb. 3, 2025)
Chair McCormick and members of the Committee, thank you for this opportunity to testify today in favor of House Bill 25-1023 (“HB 25-1023”). This bill was brought to you following a clear and urgent call by the citizens of Costilla County to raise awareness around the latest struggle in a decades long legal battle to preserve and protect their communal property rights and their way of life in Southern Colorado. These citizens are exasperated by the construction of a massive fence in their community, harming their water, the wildlife, their longstanding cultural and religious traditions, and their rights. And yet despite their calls for help to government agencies, they were told that little to nothing could be done. I’m very grateful to Representatives Bacon and Martinez for bringing this bill and for responding to the needs of rural Colorado communities.
This is an issue that I’ve become very familiar with in the last year. Over the last year, my office began to hear from Costilla County citizens, alarmed and worried over the fence under construction at Cielo Vista Ranch (a place that has gone by many names through the years, but is referred to as La Sierra by local residents). Last summer, community members asked me to come to Costilla County so I could see this problem myself and hear from the community—and I did so. When there, I spent time with the people experiencing, first-hand, the negative impacts of the fence’s construction. They took me to see the fence up-close. And afterwards, in a county of about 3,000 people, I heard from more than 100 of them—in the middle of the day, in the middle of a work week. That speaks volumes and demonstrates how significant this fence is and the impact it has on this Colorado community.
Here’s what I learned from what I saw and heard from the people of Costilla County. To say this is “just a fence” does a disservice to the complexity of this issue, and how it harms the people. This is no mere fence—instead, it’s a 20-mile-long wire-grid. One so tall that deer and elk cannot jump over it to reach water. And one with grid-openings so small—3.5 inches—that small birds and animals cannot get through it. And it’s topped with barbed wire. This fence has nothing in common with typical barbed wire fences in rural areas—instead, it’s far more similar to what we would see surrounding a state prison.
And on top of the harms the fence itself causes, its construction is equally harmful if not more. The land disturbed by the heavy equipment that it takes to build the structure is roughly 12 feet wide—meaning vegetation was ripped from the ground, leading to erosion that pours dirt and sediment into the water sources.
People from this area are allowed access to this area under the Sangre de Cristo Land Grant of 1844; to graze their livestock, and to gather firewood to heat their homes. They have a right to access the land. And they have a right to engage in their religious practices on it. Those rights should not be curtailed. But time and again, they are threatened with trespass violations or are harassed when they exercise their rights.
This matter is currently being litigated. But it’s safe to say that the Costilla County budget is far outmatched by those interests funding this massive barrier. That’s why after seeing this structure—and taking the step to hear out the landowner’s legal team and their side of things—I committed the Attorney General’s Office to stand side-by-side with Costilla County. We have and we will continue to support the County in its litigation to protect its rights and its citizens.
An important consideration this Committee must decide with this bill relates to one person’s rights to do with their private property as they please. I am a defender and proponent that people should be allowed to do as they wish with what they own, but this does not mean that others’ rights are somehow secondary or can be disregarded. My mentor, the late Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, in a dissent once pointed out the importance that one person’s rights ought to be kept in harmony with the rights of others. In this case, one person’s right to do as he pleases with his property should not mean that the neighboring community must suffer the consequences, no matter how harmful they may be. And as I mentioned previously, members of the neighboring community have special rights to use the land, which were confirmed by the Colorado Supreme Court in Lobato v. Taylor.
This bill will help ensure that one private owner cannot build an overly imposing and physical barrier that impedes the special legal rights of a community and harm local wildlife. It will provide important, additional tools to local governments to manage such situations. And it does so in a way that is well-crafted and narrowly written, respects local control, and ensures that the rights of individuals are balanced with the rights of others impacted. I’m proud to support this bill and am grateful for Reps. Bacon’s and Martinez’s leadership in bringing it forward.
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Thank you for the opportunity to be here today. I appreciate your consideration and am happy to answer any questions the Committee may have.