When Garett Reppenhagen, an honorably discharged cavalry scout and a sniper with the U.S. Army First Infantry Division, returned to his home state of Colorado in 2005 after serving in Kosovo and Iraq, the wilderness advocate recovered by spending time on public lands.

“When I came home I looked to the outdoors kind of instinctively to find healing and repose from the war,” said Reppenhagen, Rocky Mountain Director of the Vet Voice Foundation. “My mom’s house is in Green Mountain Falls near Colorado Springs and borders Pike National Forest and Pikes Peak, so that mountain was kind of a sanctuary for me.”

Reppenhagen recently participated in an EcoFlight flyover of U.S. Rep. Jared Polis’ proposed Continental Divide Wilderness and Recreation Act, which would add 40,000 acres of public land to the Holy Cross, Eagle’s Nest and Ptarmigan Peak wilderness areas in Eagle and Summit counties. It would designate another 15,000 acres of the Tenmile Range in the White River National Forest as special Recreation Management Areas to allow for mountain biking.

And Philip Clelland, a spokesman for U.S. Sen. Michael Bennet, recently told The Colorado Statesman that a companion bill in the upper chamber has taken additional time because “we’re also planning to include the designation of Camp Hale as a National Historic Landscape in our bill, and we are working closely with these groups to make sure we get it right.”

Bennet first announced his plans to draft a bill last August, and Clelland says the senator has been meeting with stakeholders and nailing down community support, “working hard to introduce a bill as soon as possible.” Polis, who serves on the House Natural Resources Committee, has been pushing to get a hearing on his bill in the next month.

“Camp Hale would be a special management area called a National Historic Landscape – the first in the country – and a lot of those recreational uses [mountain biking, off-road vehicles] would still be allowed,” Reppenhagen said of the area between Leadville and Vail where U.S. Army troops trained for winter warfare against German troops in the Italian Alps and later against the Japanese in Alaska’s Aleutian Islands during World War II.

“That’s one of the most key pieces of this is to let people use that area like it was used by 10th Mountain Division soldiers when they were training to go to Europe to fight,” Reppenhagen said of the legendary ski troopers who returned home to found many of the nation’s most iconic ski areas, including Vail. Vail Resorts supports the Polis bill, and a representative of the ski company participated in the recent flyover sponsored by Conservation Colorado.

So did Eagle County Commissioner Kathy Chandler-Henry, who marveled at views of the public lands surrounding Vail and Beaver Creek, including 14,009-foot Mount of the Holy Cross. She lamented the fact that for political reasons the Polis bill has been scaled back dramatically from the controversial Hidden Gems plan, which started out proposing  wilderness protection for more than 340,000 acres of public lands, including parcels in Pitkin and Gunnison counties.

“I’d love to see the western part of Eagle County become its own wilderness bill when we’re ready to do that, but this part is solid and has agreement from all the stakeholders and Sen. Bennet is carrying it on that side of the Congress,” Chandler-Henry said, adding that western Eagle County, Gunnison and Pitkin counties fall in the 3rd Congressional District and advocates have to work with U.S. Rep Scott Tipton, “or perhaps Gail Schwartz depending on how the election comes out.”

Schwartz is a former state senator who represented much of Southwest Colorado for eight years and is challenging Tipton for his CD3 seat in November. The entirety of the Polis proposal is in the 2nd Congressional District, which stretches west from Boulder and includes Summit County and the eastern third of Eagle County. There is a separate Gunnison Public Lands Initiative pushing for wilderness protections in Gunnison County, where Schwartz lives in Crested Butte.

“When it comes to federal land management, I support a balanced approach,” Tipton told The Statesman via a spokeswoman. “I believe that the push for any land designation must come from the local level, and I support efforts that revolve around respecting the environment we all deeply value, while making the best use of our resources.”

Wilderness protection is the most stringent form of management for federally owned public lands and typically prohibits oil and gas drilling, mining, logging and grazing, while also restricting recreational activities to prohibit motorized travel.

“Congressman Polis’ bill does not cover lands in the 3rd Congressional District, which I’m running to represent,” Schwartz said via a spokesman. “I understand many people have requested wilderness legislation that could include lands in the 3rd District, and I welcome those discussions.

“Additionally, the efforts in Gunnison County with the working group initiative serve as the model for building consensus in communities in order to identify lands that are in the long-term interests of the communities to protect.”

Scott Braden, wilderness advocate for Conservation Colorado, says he’s hopeful a hearing will be held soon in the House and that Bennet will be able to introduce his version this session. Asked about support from the rest of Colorado’s congressional delegation, Braden said he thinks some members may back the proposal because of its overwhelming support from the local business communities and elected officials.

“Congressman Tipton has never fully endorsed [the bill], but he’s never opposed any of this,” Braden said. “We hope that when it comes down to it we’ll have more support from other Colorado House members. Polis and [U.S. Rep. Doug] Lamborn are on the Natural Resources Committee. Lamborn hasn’t taken a position on it, but we’re hoping that he’ll recognize that it’s widely supported and goes for it.”

A Lamborn spokesman did not immediately respond to a request for comment.