“There’s no reason to rush forward with this proposal when Colorado’s water and a way of life could be at risk,” Bennet said in a statement. “Coloradans deserve to have their voices heard at every step of the process.”

Six area city councils — Fort Collins, Greeley, Wellington, Nunn, Ault and Timnath — have passed resolutions in opposition to the proposed mining project.

While the scores for protecting habitat and watershed protection are weaker in Colorado than other states, Colorado scored the strongest of the 11 Western states evaluated in the report in the “environmental policy and practices” category.

With regard to addressing climate change, the report found that ski resorts are backing away from things like biodiesel and renewable energy credits in favor of other new energy saving ideas. Additionally, the report found that ski resorts continue to implement a piecemeal approach to improving their carbon footprint, rather than a comprehensive strategy.

“Some resorts that scored points for buying renewable energy credits last year lost those points this year because they discontinued the program,” said Colorado Wild intern Megan Marshall in a statement. “In some cases, it sounded like it was a cost-cutting measure, but in other instances resorts seemed to be simply searching for something new to market to their customers.”

Even with scores improving across the board, more than half of the resorts still receive a failing grade in at least one of the four areas evaluated — habitat protection, watershed protection, addressing climate change, and environmental policies and practices, according to Paul Joyce, report card research director with Colorado Wild.

“Resorts in Colorado are leading the way in addressing environmental policies and practices, but still lagging behind when it comes to on-the-ground conservation,” Patricia Hickson, land use campaign associate for the Sierra Nevada Alliance, said in a statement.

The Ski Area Citizens Coalition has been publishing the “Ski Area Environmental Scorecard” for the past decade. The report card evaluates the environmental policies and practices of ski areas based on a system of 35 criteria, including preservation of sensitive lands within the ski resort areas, actions related to water conservation and quality, and “green” programs such as recycling and alternative energy use. This year, for the first time, the coalition grouped the suite of criteria by which the ski resorts were evaluated into four categories.

Scorecard data is obtained from an annual survey, public records from government agencies and from the resorts themselves.

The applicants include a commercial photography company and several companies that provide guided fishing and rafting trips on the Colorado River.

BLM is seeking public comment regarding each applicant’s safety history, conflicts that have been associated with the applicants or their employees while operating on public lands, or any other information that would be useful to the BLM as it considers the applications. BLM will accept comments through Dec. 30.

BLM and the White River National Forest and Grand Mesa-Uncompahgre national forests are working together on the proposed project, which is designed to reduce hazardous build-up of brush and other wildfire fuel, reduce the risk of fire to adjacent private property and improve ecosystem health.

The burn could take place as early as this spring if the right combination of weather conditions and moisture in the vegetation occurs. Fire officials hope to burn about 1,000 acres on BLM land and about 1,300 acres on national forest lands.