Profiles: citizens behind the wilderness

Colorado enjoys a rich legacy of over three million acres of protected wilderness, mostly National Forest wildlands. The pending effort to protect over one million Bureau of Land Management canyon country lands would not be possible without the dedication of hundreds of Coloradans. These men and women have contributed to forty years of exploring, defending, and advocating for the protection of the state’s most wild places. Their stories reveal the enthusiasm, conviction, adventure, and stewardship that lie at the core of citizen wilderness inventories and proposals.

Dick Guadagno:
Public Lands Explorer
and Conservation Leader
Contact: (970) 527-4563 Paonia, Colorado

Dick Guadagno is a semi-retired thermodynamicist and avid bird watcher who lives in Paonia, Colorado. Guadagno led many of the first citizen inventory hikes into Colorado’s wild canyon country. He got his start at the first Colorado Mountain Club conservation meeting in 1957, where the group first talked of land preservation ideas, an emerging science he found quite exciting. Guadagno was moved by the meeting to volunteer to help inventory remote wildlands so that the group could document the special places they felt were worth protecting.

In 1963, Guadagno explored Rattlesnake Canyon for the first time. The remote area straddles the Colorado-Utah border just west of Grand Junction, and contains the southwest’s second largest concentration of natural arches. The initial boundary and inventory hikes conducted by Guadagno set a precedent still used in citizen inventories today. Over the years, Guadagno led over a dozen hikes into the Rattlesnake Canyon and many other wilderness study areas. Some of these trips were solo, but most were with others, especially lands expert Mark Pearson. These public hikes provided people the opportunity to see first hand why it was worth preserving.

Guadagno further involved the public with a slide show of photos he had accumulated while inventorying public wildlands. He presented the slideshow for local conservation groups and community organizations, and his efforts helped disperse information and enthusiasm for protecting Colorado’s canyon country.

“I used the pictures to show the spectacular natural features, wildlife habitat, and remote landscapes that we were working to protect,” Guadagno said.

Guadagno applied his vast on-the-ground experience to help draft citizen wilderness proposals throughout the late 1970s and 1980s, which were then submitted to Congress.

“Eventually, our congressmen recognized that we knew more about these lands than the agencies did because our work kept us in the field for extended periods and had taken us to places where no one had been since the Utes were driven out,” Guadagno recalls.

In 2000, Rattlesnake Canyon was protected as part of the Black Ridge Wilderness Area. This victory belongs to many citizens, including Dick Guadagno, one of the first to identify and struggle to protect this spectacular area as wilderness.

Jim and Billie DeRuiter:
102 Days of Field Work for Wilderness
Contact: (970) 586-6157 Estes Park, Colorado

Jim and Billie DeRuiter, a husband-wife team, have dedicated their retirement to outdoor volunteer work that services other people and the environment. Since 1998, the Estes Park couple has logged 4,988 miles and 102 days of mapping and inventorying BLM lands that may qualify for wilderness designation.

In October of 1998, the DeRuiters went on their first mapping trip and learned the techniques involved in wilderness inventory.

“Right away, we found the backcountry inventory work to be a joy and a blessing,” said Jim. “We stayed involved because we were convinced of the worth of protecting these incredible lands as wilderness.”

Five trips later, the DeRuiters completed all or part of the technical mapping for twelve different areas that the Colorado Wilderness Network believes possess wilderness characteristics. Their volunteer efforts allowed additional wilderness quality areas to be added to the existing Citizens’ Wilderness Proposal this past July.

To complete the technical mapping work, the couple began by following the perimeter of the proposed wilderness area. Where roads or trails penetrated into the area, they surveyed those as well. Because a requirement for wilderness is the absence of roads, the DeRuiters would study each branch of each route to see if it was a “road.” Once field checked, the actual boundary could be carefully drawn onto a topographical map.

The DeRuiters kept photo documentation of each road, and they recorded other man-made objects such as cattle tanks and reservoirs. Each photo was then marked with a corresponding number on the topographical map with an arrow showing from which direction the photo was taken.

“Our hope all along has been that we can soon achieve wilderness designation for all of these lands that deserve it—so we can save some of life’s diversity for future generations,” Jim said. “We think about it now more than ever with the birth of our first granddaughter thirty-four days ago.”

Thanks to the DeRuiters’ meticulous documentation, the Colorado Wilderness Network hopes to see that vision to fruition.

Bill Schapley:
Management Planner
and Wilderness Defender
Contact: (970) 245-1557 Grand Junction, Colorado

The existing Citizens’ Wilderness Proposal (CWP) shows that 1.3 million acres of Colorado BLM land qualify for wilderness protection. These lands require constant defense so that they maintain their wilderness values until Congress designates them as such. Bill Schapley has not only inventoried Colorado canyon country, but he also works with the BLM to see that these areas get the respect they deserve until they are protected.

“The BLM must not manage lands eligible for wilderness protection in ways incompatible with wilderness designation. Allowing oil and gas drilling or expanding bike trails and off-road vehicle routes will result in a major loss of lands eligible for wilderness designation,” Schapley said.

He has acted not only as an agency watchdog, bringing the BLM photographic evidence of destructive off-road vehicle activity, but has also served on BLM management planning committees. In 1995, Schapley participated in the BLM’s Black Ridge Canyon committee, which planned the management of what is now the Black Ridge Canyon Wilderness Area.

“The way that the land is managed is almost as important as the designation it has. Even if designated as wilderness, if an area is not managed as such, the designation won’t serve its purpose,” Schapley explained.

Schapley also received a governor appointed position on former Secretary of the Interior Bruce Babbit’s original Resource Advisory Council (RAC) for Northwest Colorado. This citizen advisory group developed protective standards and guidelines for grazing on Colorado BLM lands.

“I do this work for the ecological reasons that tend to be put on the back burner in most management planning processes. I speak for the lands and the plants and critters that live there, because they can’t speak for themselves,” Schapley said.

Agency awareness of threats to citizen proposed areas has grown, and many areas have been defended, largely due to citizen activists like Bill Schapley.