Is this what a camel’s nose looks like? Over the next few years, Republicans and Democrats are going to have a robust debate on the importance of preserving public lands.

Some are clearly more valuable than others; nobody is proposing an oil rig atop Mount Rushmore. In Colorado, gorgeous and significant Camp Hale in the White River National Forest near Leadville fits the bill as land worth fighting over, U.S. Sen. Michael Bennet has signaled.

Back in the spring, Bennet pledged to make the home of the Army’s Spartan force 10th Mountain Division the nation’s first National Historic Landscape. A Bennet bill is expected to drop this winter.

That would add another layer of protection for 30,000 acres where 14,000 soldiers trained from 1942 to 1945.

It also reinforces an image in the public’s eye that all public lands should get America’s highest preservation, while more conservative voices think some areas, however, could do more to create jobs and bring in taxes.

The news has been out for a few months, but just in case Bennet might not have it on his mind in the wake of winning a fresh six-year term, 5280 magazine’s Kasey Cordell profiled the plan on its website Monday.

Many of the soldiers who trained at Camp Hale returned after World War II to give life to Colorado’s ski industry. As Cordell points out, the entrance of Ski Cooper features a memorial that bears the names of the 992 men from Camp Hale who did not come home.

The campaign for the designation as a National Historic Landscape is being led by Conservation Colorado, the group that worked with state Sen. Kerry Donovan, D-Vail, to establish the nation’s first state Public Lands Day in the last session.

Donavan’s family has been at the forefront of protecting wilderness areas of the Colorado high country.

Support for the designation also comes from Colorado Springs Utilities, which hopes to safeguard water headed to its reservoirs from the Upper Blue River.