Athlete aids Reid moves

Olympic pentathlete Margaux Isaksen has lent her new celebrity to protection of public lands, publishing an essay in her Colorado Springs hometown newspaper and joining Nevada’s U.S. Sen. Harry Reid and U.S. Rep. Ruben Gallego of Arizona at a news conference.

“The National Forest was basically our backyard, and for a time my mom ran a bed and breakfast in the area,” Isaksen wrote in the essay. “As kids, we ran all the trails and swam in all of the protected streams and rivers. Growing up next to the Ozark National Forest shaped me as an athlete and pushed me to become an Olympian.”

“One of the biggest risks we’ve seen is the efforts … to use different types of legislation to either strip away some of these protections or to stop any future protections,” Gallego said.

This was in reference to bills sponsored by U.S. Rep. Rob Bishop of Utah, opening up public lands for development or recreation. Reid and Bishop called for more protection against such initiatives.