Mountain bikers are hoping to strike a middle ground on the proposed Hermosa Wilderness plan. The Forest Service recently recommended a plan that would create a 51,000-acre West Hermosa Wilderness. However, the designation would also result in the closure of 5 miles of the Colorado Trail along with the Clear Creek and Corral Draw trails to mountain biking, a proposition that has raised local hackles in recent weeks.

Mike Van Abel, executive director of the International Mountain Bike Association, recently visited Durango and suggested ways that preservation and recreation could coexist in the Hermosa Creek drainage. National Conservation and National Recreation areas are two designations that would provide ample protection but would not eclipse the historic mountain biking use.

“National Conservation Areas and National Recreation Areas are two preservation tools that we’re excited about,” explained Mark Eller, IMBA communica

tions director. “They’re existing designations that offer the same protections as wilderness but aren’t quite as restrictive for recreation.”

Trails 2000 has suggested going even one step further. Durango’s trails advocacy organization has aired a proposal for a smaller approximately 30,000-acre wilderness area, embedded inside a 145,000-acre national conservation area.

“We could create a large section of wilderness and surround it with a large national conservation area,” said Mary Monroe, Trails 2000 executive director. “That’s a compromise that would greatly widen the preservation and preserve the existing uses.”

Whatever happens, IMBA has high hopes for a mutually agreeable outcome. “We think there’s a great opportunity for cooperation down there,” Eller concluded. “We’re hoping for a solution that the rest of the nation can follow.”

– Will Sands