News briefs
Summit County development application denied
because of wildlife concerns
The CMC joined forces with other conservation organizations to oppose the approval of a 21-unit subdivision plat at the base of Jones Gulch in Summit County. The Summit County Board of County Commissioners voted 3–0 to deny the application on July 9. Jones Gulch is one of the last north-south forested wildlife corridors left in the central mountains. It connects the mountains south of I-70 to the mountains north of the interstate over the Loveland land bridge (the area over Eisenhower Tunnel). The area is a critical corridor for ranging animals including elk, deer, boreal owls, goshawks, wolverines, and lynx, a species listed as threatened under the Endangered Species Act.
The housing development, proposed by the Keystone Real Estate Development Company, called for the construction of twenty-one houses on approximately seventeen acres east of their Settler’s Ridge Development.The opposing organizations sent a six-page letter to the Summit County Board of Commissioners urging them to deny the plat application. The letter emphasized the findings of the Colorado Division of Wildlife, the U.S. Forest Service, and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. The agencies cited the critical nature of the corridor and recommended that the Commissioners uphold the ruling of the Snake River Planning Commission, who in a 5–1 vote found that the application was not in compliance with Summit County’s Wildlife Habitat Overlay District.
Buffalo Peaks Hill Climb in Buena Vista put on hold
The CMC teamed up with the Salida-based Quiet Use Coalition and several other conservation organizations to ask the Forest Service to deny a Special Use Permit application for the Buffalo Peaks Hill Climb. The Buffalo Peaks Hill Climb has to date been an annual event in which hundreds of motorized enthusiasts gather to race vehicles on the Pike–San Isabel National Forest near Buena Vista.
Last year, environmentalists in the Arkansas Valley documented numerous violations to the Special Use Permit and presented these to the Forest Service with the request that they not reissue the permit until the Hill Climb Association can demonstrate that such violations will not reoccur.
This past July, conservation organizations led by CMC and the Quiet Use Coalition, submitted comments to the Forest Service urging that they conduct an Environmental Assessment of the event as they are mandated to do under the National Environmental Policy Act. Agreeing that their legal responsibilities had not been adequately met, the Forest Service agreed to cancel the event this year.
Considerable concern exists that motorized enthusiasts, upset at the cancellation, will converge at the event site on the previously scheduled dates. Environmentalists have urged the Forest Service to have an adequate enforcement presence on site to ensure that the land and other users are protected.
“The message here is not that the motorized folks were unfairly denied a permit for a motorized race on public lands. The message here is that this event has a documented history of resulting in significant environmental damage, and the event should not happen again until organizers can demonstrate that the land will be protected,” said Vera Smith, conservation director for the Colorado Mountain Club. “The first step is for the Forest Service to follow the law by conducting an environmental analysis.”