Trail & Timberline On-line — November-December, 1999
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Celebrating 35 years of the Wilderness Act |
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Trail & Timberline featuresGuargualla, 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 Colorado Wilderness Bills of 1999 Happy Anniversary, Baby. The Wilderness act turns 35. Is it grown up yet? |
Volunteers further wilderness effortDuring the past six months, over sixty volunteers assisted the Colorado Mountain Club and the Colorado Environmental Coalition (two of the five organizations on the steering committee for the Colorado Wilderness Network) in mapping proposed wilderness areas around the state. In groups of ten to twenty, volunteers spent a weekend at six different proposed areas, by day mapping the boundaries and the interiors of the areas and by night sitting around the campfire discussing wilderness issues. The proposed wilderness areas are part of the Colorado Wilderness Act of 1999, a bill currently pending in Congress. As the first comprehensive effort in Colorado to protect lower-elevation canyon country lands, the bill proposes to designate 1.1 million acres of lower elevation mountainous lands as wilderness. The volunteer mapping weekends have two main purposes: 1) to document the suitability of the proposed areas for wilderness; and 2) to introduce and connect Coloradans to some of the most pristine roadless areas in the state. According to the Wilderness Act of 1964, an area has to meet several criteria to be suitable for wilderness designation. First, an area generally has to be at least five thousand contiguous roadless acres (it can be fewer if it is adjacent to another wilderness area). Secondly, the area should seem natural—i.e., affected primarily by the forces of nature where “the imprints of man’s work [are] substantially unnoticeable.” Lastly, an area should provide outstanding opportunities for either solitude or for a “primitive and unconfined” forms of recreation. Volunteers hiked, biked, and drove through the proposed areas looking for features that would either support or oppose designation. For example, volunteers examined every route that bounded or crossed the proposed area to determine if each met the BLM criteria for a road. In addition, volunteers hiked cross-country, exploring the nooks and crannies of these areas, taking photographs of unique natural and historic features, and writing testimonials about their experiences. The Colorado Environmental Coalition will organize all of the inventory information into reports on each of the proposed areas. “These reports are a tremendous asset in promoting and defending the Colorado Wilderness Act of 1999,” said Kurt Kunkle, the Field Inventory Coordinator for the Colorado Environmental Coalition. “The Network will use the information to fine-tune area boundaries to insure their suitability for designation. As the Wilderness Bill is debated within the state as well as in the halls of Congress, we will be able to present proof that the proposed areas truly qualify and deserve wilderness protection. Lastly, the information provides a useful baseline by which we can measure whether management actions are endangering an area’s chance at receiving designation. If we think that this is the case, we raise the issue with the BLM with the hope that they will alter their management to provide the best interim protection possible.” Next year, the Colorado Mountain Club and the Colorado Environmental Coalition plan to team up again. The two organizations will organize another series of mapping weekends (assuming grant funding is received). In addition, the Wilderness Network will be traveling the state throughout the winter presenting a slide show on the proposed wilderness areas and the Colorado Wilderness Act of 1999. |
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