Saving the quiet trail

A quiet and peaceful trail experience used to be widely enjoyed on public lands in Colorado, but it has become a relative rarity in recent years. With the increasing popularity of off-road vehicles (ORVs) bringing motorized use far into the backcountry, the trail experience that many outdoor enthusiasts seek seems to be difficult to find.

The type of peaceful experience that Quiet Use members
are trying to preserve. Photo from the Never Summer Range.

In order to give perspective to current off-road vehicle usage, consider the following facts: In Colorado, ORV registrations increased five hundred percent between 1990 and 2000, from 11,700 to 55,320. This trend is predicted to continue in the future, as off-road vehicle use becomes increasingly popular. Currently, ORV’s are permitted on ninety-one percent of Colorado’s Bureau of Land Management lands, with their travel completely unrestricted on fifty of agency lands. In many of these unrestricted areas, it is difficult to travel cross-country without seeing “spiderwebs” of double-track routes from vehicles.

Last spring, an intriguing alliance of backcountry enthusiasts formed in Western Colorado with new ideas to deal with this issue. The organization calls itself the “Quiet Trails Coalition.” It is comprised of diverse interests including bikers, wilderness advocates, hikers, skiers, and climbers. Members are promoting BLM designation of certain lands as “Quiet Use Areas” that would allow various forms of trail-based non-motorized activities including hiking, biking, and horseback riding.

Jim Majors, the Coalition spokesman, explains the function of the Quiet Trails Coalition as “…attempting to ensure that a fair mix of opportunities remain available on our public lands, while focusing on protection of wild places, habitat, and other natural values.”

The Quiet Trails Coalition supports responsible motorized recreation on appropriate public lands and agrees that additional areas deserve designation as wilderness. However, members state that land designation need not be so black and white.

“The BLM needs to find a middle ground between wilderness and open use areas,” explains Pete Kolbenschlag, Quiet Trails member and representative of the Colorado Environmental Coalition. “We are promoting a range of management alternatives for areas of public land that might not be suited for Wilderness designation, but still hold important natural and recreational values that deserve protections.”

In order to be designated as a wilderness area, lands must meet criteria such as containing a certain amount of acreage and showing minimal “imprints of man.” The Quiet Trails Coalition argues that there are many areas that do not necessarily meet the definition of wilderness, but should not be discounted from receiving a certain level of protection. Hence the “Quiet Use Area” concept that will allow for a higher level of protection by promoting areas with limited motorized use but with less restrictions than Wilderness.

In order to promote the Quiet Use Area, the Quiet Trails Coalition plans to work with the BLM on public land management issues and build an alliance of diverse non-motorized interests in Colorado. This is an exciting step for recreationists and environmentalists, and it may help to ensure that we will always be able to find the tranquil backcountry experience that we passionately seek.