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by Steve Bonowski, State Access chair
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The CMC Board of has endorsed a proposal from the Quiet Use Coalition in Chaffee and Lake Counties. The Quiet Use Coalition is a grassroots group formed during the last eighteen months. Citizens formed the Coalition in response to ever-increasing usage of off-road/off-highway vehicles (OHVs) in the San Isabel National Forest. While used by only a small minority of recreational users, OHVS, including snowmobiles, have proliferated on National Forest lands and elsewhere in Colorado in recent years.
The Quiet Use proposal has been submitted to the Forest Service, which is being encouraged to incorporate the concepts in the upcoming revision of the San Isabel Forest Management Plan. The Coalition considers the growth in OHV use to be detrimental for several reasons. It creates a negative experience in the backcountry for those who go out to seek solitude, quiet, and enjoyment of the woods. The increasing OHV use also impacts wildlife travel corridors with increasing amounts of noise.
The proposal encourages the Forest Service to set aside twenty non-wilderness areas in the two counties for "quiet use." Quiet uses include, but aren't limited to, hiking, backpacking, bicycling, canoeing, horseback riding, hunting, fishing, camping, wildlife viewing, skiing, snowshoeing, and photography. In most of the areas, motorized access would still be allowed where appropriate via use of "highway licensed four wheel drive vehicles." Personal motorized vehicles such as dirt bikes, ATVs, snowmobiles, and jet skis would be prohibited in quiet use areas.
Specific areas where the Quiet Use regulations would be enforced include Brown's and Little Brown's Creeks, Hancock Basin, Upper South and North Cottonwood Creeks, Upper Baldwin Lake and Creek, Lake Fork of Clear Creek (Cloyses Lake), Ptarmigan Creek, Poplar Gulch Trail, and the roadless area immediately west of the Buffalo Peaks Wilderness. Access to popular four-wheel-drive roads such as Hancock Pass, the road up to 13,700 feet on Mt. Antero, and many other backcountry roads would not be affected by this proposal.
Regrettably, motorized user groups have organized and are putting heavy pressure on the Forest Service to ignore the Coalition's proposal. The biggest reasons seem to be that quiet use as a management prescription would create de-facto additional wilderness areas. Since all areas are open to biking, and most are open to regular four-wheel-drive vehicles, this argument is an empty one. Opponents also claim such designation would keep persons with disabilities from enjoying the backcountry. This too is a hollow argument because there are other ways for disabled persons to get out in the backcountry. Access via four-wheel-drive vehicles, horseback, and even skiing or snowshoeing are possible. By executive order from the Regional Forester, wheelchairs are permitted even in designated wilderness areas.
Historically, CMCers have seen human powered recreationists pushed aside by motorized users in such places as the Grand Mesa and Vail Pass. The Conservation and Access Committees believe that we can share the backcountry with other users. But a firm position speaking up for human powered recreationists is critical in order to retain the experiences we've become accustomed to in the eighty-six years of the Club's existence. For more information on this issue, or to help, you can contact Heide Andersen, Claude Neumann, or this writer via the CMC Office in Golden.
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