A working cattle ranch near Carbondale wants to acquire roughly 2,100 acres of nearby federal public land, in exchange for transferring a similarly sized amount of private land at Cow Creek Ranch and Timber Valley Ranch northwest of Rifle into public ownership — and according to The Denver Post, its owners have spent $200,000 lobbying a Western Slope congressman to help make it happen. The proposal, known as the GAME Act, has drawn hunters, neighbors and a state wildlife agency into a fight over how much say the public should get before federal land changes hands.
A Swap Years in the Making
Out of Bounds Ranch, a working cattle operation run by owner Scott Smith, first approached the Bureau of Land Management about a potential exchange back in October 2021, according to The Denver Post. Smith and his wife, Tiffany, had bought the roughly 1,900-acre property near Carbondale for $8.5 million that same year, per the Post's reporting, and the swap they're now pursuing would more than double the ranch's footprint. The ranch already grazes cattle on the adjacent public parcel under a BLM lease, the paper reports.
Under the ranch's own description of the plan, posted on its website, about 2,091 acres of private land at Cow Creek Ranch and Timber Valley Ranch would become federal public land, while roughly 2,179 acres of BLM-administered land would shift into private hands — with about 2,139 of those acres folded into Out of Bounds Ranch itself. The ranch says the acreage it receives would carry a perpetual deed restriction barring residential subdivision and development, and the Post reports Smith has agreed to that restriction if the land becomes his.
The Legislative Pivot
The Smiths contacted the BLM again in April 2025, but a BLM state director said that year that the standard administrative process for such an exchange could take more than a decade, according to the Post's reporting. BLM staff have also hesitated to pursue administrative land exchanges because they often prompt litigation, the paper reports. Facing that timeline, the ranch pivoted in June 2025 to discussions with Rep. Jeff Hurd, who represents Colorado's 3rd Congressional District, about a legislative approach instead.
Hurd's office drafted what's now called the Greater Access for Multiple-use Experiences Act, or GAME Act, though the Post notes Hurd has not committed to actually introducing the bill. Between April 2025 and June 2026, the ranch paid $200,000 to lobbying firms, according to the Post's reporting, and the outlet also reports the ranch donated $14,000 to Hurd's reelection campaign. The ranch's lobbyist, Jeff Small, previously served as chief of staff to former Rep. Lauren Boebert; Small told the Post the exchange consolidates checkerboards of land and makes better use of federal parcels.
What the Ranch Says It Would Gain
The ranch's website frames the trade as solving an access problem, arguing that legal public access exists to the area but is insufficient to support BLM's planned recreational purposes. It says BLM formally classified 2,017 acres in the Consolidated Reservoir area as having significantly restricted public access in 2020, 2022 and 2024, and that the proposed BLM acreage would improve practical access to roughly 8,900 acres of existing BLM land to the north and connectivity to about 52,000 more acres to the south. The ranch's site notes the land connects at its northern end to White River National Forest but says that connection is not an established public-access route into the forest. Separately, the ranch's site says Colorado Parks and Wildlife identified the Cow Creek and Timber Valley properties as containing some of the state's highest-value big-game hunting habitat.
Wildlife Agency and Hunters Push Back
Colorado Parks and Wildlife sent a letter to Hurd's office on September 3 raising concerns about the exchange, according to the Post, stating that both parcels are popular, high-value hunting areas and important wildlife habitat. Tayler Larsen, whose family has hunted on the BLM parcel for more than 30 years, told the paper the exchange would delete more than 2,000 acres of public land around Glenwood Springs. Laura Clellan wrote that the swap would severely limit access to abutting U.S. Forest Service land, the Post reports, while Meme Kistner said the swap would affect residents personally and financially. Holly McLain wrote that the proposed trade is not fair, according to the paper's reporting, and the Post reports an online petition asking Hurd to abandon the exchange has gathered hundreds of signatures.
Local Government Support and What Comes Next
Despite the opposition, Garfield County commissioners approved a resolution supporting the GAME Act, according to the county's own announcement. The draft legislation first surfaced publicly during a Garfield County commissioners meeting on July 6, the Post reports, and homeowners adjacent to BLM land turned out again for a subsequent meeting on July 21. Any potential exchange will still undergo an environmental analysis under the National Environmental Policy Act, which will include opportunities for public comment, according to the Post's reporting.
Nicholas Green of Colorado Wild Public Lands, a nonprofit land-exchange watchdog based in the Roaring Fork Valley, told the Post that legislative land exchanges are becoming more common and often involve less transparency and public input than administrative exchanges handled directly by the BLM. That dynamic has played out before in the same corner of the state: a separate proposal involving the Wexner family's Sutey Ranch holdings above Carbondale would privatize more than 1,400 acres of BLM property in exchange for a 557-acre ranch and a 117-acre parcel off Prince Creek Road, according to the Aspen Daily News, and BLM officials were evaluating that offer through the standard administrative process rather than a congressional bill. The Wexner family had earlier withdrawn a 2010 bid seeking Pitkin County support for a congressional swap, according to Estin Aspen, and instead spent $18.5 million buying up nearly 600 acres of nearby land in eight separate private purchases.
