Canyon Country Wilderness Plan Spawns Legislation Protecting Areas
Statewide Six Wild Ten areas included in new wilderness legislation

by
John Stansfield, Wilderness Chair

The Colorado Canyon Country Wilderness Proposal Sweeping through rapids
in the famed Browns Canyon reach of the Arkansas River, rafters are
dwarfed by the forested slopes and rocky towers that flank the river.
Birds, large and small, soar overhead. Red, ochre, and gray hues in
stone are set off by the varied greens of pines, oaks, and riverside
grasses. Splashes of buff and white in the rocks might be bighorn
sheep, which inhabit the canyon year-round.

Browns Canyon - Railroad Gulch Looking East. Photo-Friends of Browns Canyon

Each year more than 100,000 people float through Browns Canyon on the
Arkansas River north of Salida, reveling in white water adventure and
wild scenery. This stretch of river is the most heavily rafted in the
United States. The public lands flanking the Arkansas add considerable
value to the visitor experience and economic benefit generated in Browns
Canyon. As valuable a resource as it is, the 20,000-acre Browns Canyon
citizens' proposed wilderness encompasses only a small portion of a
huge, though yet unprotected, treasure trove of wild lands--the Colorado
Canyon Country Wilderness Proposal (CCCWP.)

CCCWP includes 62 areas statewide, totaling 1.65 million acres of
pristine Colorado, composed mostly of lands administered by the Bureau
of Land Management. Also part of the wilderness proposal are
high-quality national forest and state lands adjoining some of the BLM
parcels. Included in CCCWP are many of the state's most beautiful and
most ecologically diverse regions. The diversity ranges from low
elevations, as in far western Colorado's Dolores River Canyons, to
Colorado's highest elevations, such as 14,000-foot Handies Peak in the
San Juan Mountains.

Browns Canyon with Collegiate Peaks in the background. Photo-Friends of Browns Canyon

Six of the CCCWP areas are located in the spectacular Arkansas River
Canyon between Buena Vista and Pueblo. Browns Canyon, McIntyre Hills,
Grape Creek, and Beaver Creek are included, along with new additions
Badger Creek and Table Mountain.

"The lower elevation lands, as in the Arkansas Canyon, provide
exceptional recreation opportunities and wildlife habitat when the
higher mountains are under snow," said Kurt Kunkle of the Colorado
Environmental Coalition. "All 62 areas are begging to be protected from
the bite of the bulldozer, the ATV, and the drill rig."

Updated and expanded from wilderness inventories dating back to the
1970s, CCCWP has a fresh and informative new look online at
www.canyoncountrywilderness.org. An overview of each proposed
wilderness features a map and scenic photo keyed to a narrative
detailing wilderness qualities, natural resource information, and
boundary issues. A hardcopy version of CCCWP is forthcoming.

Badger Creek and the rugged country it passes through. Photo-John Stansfield

The Colorado Wilderness Act of 2007
In response to the revised CCCWP, Congresswoman Diana DeGette (D-Denver) introduced the Colorado Wilderness Act of 2007 (CWA 2007) in early October. The bill gives legislative recognition to each of the 62 areas
in the canyon country proposal. Rep. DeGette had introduced a similar
bill in each session of Congress since 1999. Unlike past measures,
however, DeGette's bill has a heightened chance of seeing hearings and
other legislative action this session, due to her party's assuming
control of Congress after the 2006 election.

CWA 2007 proposes wilderness protection for Badger Creek and Table
Mountain for the first time. During the legislative process, the bill
offers a modicum of informal protection from development to Badger Creek
and Table Mountain, safeguards not previously available to them. Beaver
Creek, Grape Creek, McIntyre Hills, and Browns Canyon appeared in
previous versions of the bill. Large portions of these four areas have
interim wilderness protection pending congressional action, due to their
status as BLM Wilderness Study Areas.

Credit for much of the field inventory on the six local proposed
wilderness areas goes to the Wild Connections group, Upper
Arkansas-South Platte Project (UASPP) and its sister organization,
Central Colorado Wilderness Coalition. Such work is indispensable in
verifying that wilderness qualities required by the Wilderness Act of
1964 are present in each area. The required qualities are roadlessness,
naturalness, and opportunities for primitive recreation and solitude.

Each of the six local areas wild areas is a key component of UASPP's
Wild Connections Conservation Plan. If designated wilderness, the lands
will continue performing in perpetuity their key role of protecting
biological diversity for our region and the nation.

Curious bighorn sheep ewe in Table Mountain proposed wilderness. Photo-John Stansfield

No new wilderness has been designated in Colorado in five years, nor any
designated in The Upper Arkansas and South Platte watersheds in fifteen
years. The Colorado Canyon Country Wilderness Proposal and Colorado
Wilderness Act of 2007 take positive steps forward. But will these
efforts bear fruit? While we can not see the future, one thing is
clear: to preserve environmental quality in Colorado and the nation, we
need more wilderness designations to safeguard the vibrant heart of wild
nature which sustains us all.

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