Conservation update for August and September 1999

Trail & Timberline On-line — November-December, 1999

Celebrating 35 years of the Wilderness Act

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Trail & Timberline features

Ultimate Peru

Noatak River, Alaska

The Tumpline

Guargualla, Ecuador

Wild Colorado

featuring articles on the Wilderness Act

"Just the Facts, Ma'am" CMC Public Land Policy Director Vera Smith makes a plea for a deeper understanding of wilderness

Myths & Facts about Wilderness

Volunteers further wilderness efforts

Colorado Wilderness Bills of 1999

Happy Anniversary, Baby. The Wilderness act turns 35. Is it grown up yet?

Conservation update for August and September 1999

State and National Issues

State Parks trail grant criteria revised. The Public Lands Policy Department worked with Colorado Audubon and the Rocky Mountain Recreational Initiative to convince State Parks staff to rethink the criteria for state trails grant allocations. In response, State Parks staff rewrote the criteria for this year’s grant cycle, making them much more environmentally-oriented. This is significant since State Parks distributes several million dollars annually for trail and recreation-related projects.

CMC advocates for mandatory OHV training. A roundtable discussion between the Colorado Mountain Club, the Colorado Wildlife Federation, the Colorado Off-Highway Vehicle Coalition, and the Rocky Mountain Recreational Initiative yielded an agreement that the state should institute mandatory OHV training. We wrote the first draft of a proposal for the training that will be signed by members of the roundtable and submitted to the state trails program for consideration. The roundtable seeks to identify common ground and preliminary steps that user groups, working together, can take to reduce user conflict and protect the land.

OHV meeting with Congressman Udall. The Colorado Mountain Club, along with the Wilderness Society, Wildlands CPR, the Rocky Mountain Recreational Initiative, and the Quiet Use Coalition, met with Represen tative Mark Udall (D-Boulder) in August to discuss OHV and recreation issues on public lands in the state.

Comments submitted on the State Trails Program Strategic Plan. The Colorado Mountain Club submitted comments to State Parks on the Strategic Plan for the State Trails Program. We complimented the state for recognizing the need for integrated trails planning on a landscape level; that trail maintenance is considerably more important than new trail construction; that trail projects and plans should direct use away from sensitive habitats; that trail projects should be tied into federal land management priorities; and that public and private trail groups require education on sustainable trail design and the environmental impacts of trails.

CMC intervened in a law suit over cross-country motorized recreation filed by the Colorado Off-Highway Vehicle Coalition (COHVCO) against the US Forest Service. COHVCO filed suit opposing recent restrictions for motorized vehicles to travel off designated roads and trails in the Routt National Forest. In filing the suit, CMC wants to support the Forest Service in its efforts to protect natural resources, and to make it clear that recreation must be practiced appropriately and responsibly.

Conservation list serve is active again. CMC members have asked the state office to establish an activists e-mail list. We decided that the easiest way to transmit information about upcoming conservation meetings and events and to solicit members’ opinions on conservation issues is to post notices on the CMC Conservation List Serve. To subscribe, send email to lists@climber.org with the following message: “subscribe conservation Firstname Lastname <email address>” For more information about CMC list serves, send a message to info@climber.org.

Western Slope

The Grand Junction Group works hard for wilderness. Grand Junction group representatives accompanied Congresswoman DeGette on hikes through proposed wilderness areas. Congresswoman DeGette sponsored the Colorado Wilderness Act of 1999, which proposes the designation of forty-nine separate units of wilderness in the state. The Grand Junction group has been extremely active in advocating for the bill.

Front Range

CMC submits comments on travel management. The Colorado Mountain Club submitted comments to the Arapaho-Roosevelt NF on the Clear Creek Ranger District Travel Management Scoping and the Boulder Ranger District Travel Management Scoping. The comments are available on the CMC web site.

Central Mountains

Comments on White River Forest Land and Resource Management Plan and Travel Management Plan Revision are due December 10. The Forest Service caused a stir when they released the draft revision of the plan. The CMC is preparing comments on this important document. If you have concerns or comments, please transmit them to your group officers or to the Public Lands Policy Department ( smithv@cmc.org), or directly to the Forest Service (Martha Ketelle, Supervisor’s Office, 900 Grand Avenue, PO Box 948, Glenwood Springs, CO 81602.) Also, keep your eye on the CMC web site, as CMC’s comments will be posted along with updates on the planning process.