Bear Mountain, near Silverton, looms from inside the Weminuche Wilderness Area. Wilderness advocates are expressing disappointment that San Juan National Forest’s new draft land management plan calls for only a fraction of eligible acreage to be designated as new wilderness./Photo by David Halterman

by Will Sands

Mountain bike riders aren’t the only ones scratching their heads over the San Juan National Forest’s new wilderness recommendation. Wilderness advocates are also expressing disappointment in a plan they feel represents only a token amount of preservation.

Since 2005, the San Juan Public Lands Center has been working to revise the guiding principles of local public lands. That work came to fruition Dec. 20, when the agency released its draft forest plan to the public. As part of any forest plan revision, roadless areas must be considered for potential wilderness designation, which would enhance protection by prohibiting resource extraction and mechanized travel.

The San Juan National Forest boasts an abundance of roadless areas with more than a half-million acres dotting the forest in large pockets. Roadless areas stretch across the forest from south of Wolf Creek Pass to elevations south of Telluride.

The largest roadless area in the San Juan National Forest and the state surrounds Hermosa Creek, northwest of Durango. The 145,000-acre area is also among Durango’s most popular recreation resources and is home to the Hermosa Creek Trail and a large section of the Colorado Trail, both revered by mountain bikers. And it is within this area that the Forest Service has made its only major wilderness recommendation – a proposed 51,000-acre West Hermosa Wilderness. Shortly after the release of the plan, Thurman Wilson, assistant manager of the San Juan Public Lands Center, explained why the agency had set its sights on the west side of that drainage.

“The Hermosa Roadless Area is our biggest, and of all our roadless areas, we felt it best met the characteristics of wilderness,” he said. “All along we’ve wanted to protect that wild character, while respecting the traditional uses.”

However, San Juan Citizens Alliance and the Wilderness Society see many strong candidates for wilderness all over the forest. The groups see opportunities for designations which would enhance preservation and be a boon to habitat and the quality of the watershed.

Michael Carroll, associate director of the Wilderness Society’s Wilderness Support Network, commented that additional designations could mark a turning point for the San Juans and the nation. “We’re looking at something that could be very different in terms of wilderness,” he said. “We’re finally at a point where we can protect some low-lying habitat and get away from the high-elevation rock and ice that is already well-represented in the wilderness picture.”

One roadless area currently comes close to connecting the Weminuche and South San Juan wildernesses. With a wilderness designation, its wild character would be preserved in perpetuity and a lasting habitat corridor would exist.

“Wolf Creek Pass is one of the habitat pinch points in the Southern Rockies,” said Mark Pearson, executive director of San Juan Citizens Alliance. “Securing that corridor would be a crucial step for us.”

In addition, large fringes of roadless areas abut existing wilderness, and the San Miguel Roadless Area between Bolam Pass and Sheep Mountain qualifies admirably, according to Pearson and Carroll. Also, the areas surrounding the Dolores River meet wilderness criteria but did not make the cut for the draft forest plan. Pearson suggested a motive for the plan’s relative lack of recommended wilderness.

“My take is that this plan demonstrates what the Forest Service has always thought about wilderness,” he said. “They don’t want their hands tied. I think the forest management is telling us they’d rather have the control in their hands.”

Roadless areas also carry relatively light protection, according to Carroll and Pearson. The pair pointed to the Forest Service recent approval of 27 gas wells and 11 miles of road inside the HD Mountains Roadless Area. Hardrock mining and logging remain major threats to the San Juans’ other roadless areas. “Until we get the 1872 Mining Law changed, people can go into these areas, file claims and start mining,” Pearson said. “Another likely threat is the steady creep of logging for forest health projects. Motorized recreation is also making its way deeper into the backcountry.”

Carroll noted that the recent draft forest plan has been a long time coming, and if only a fraction of roadless acres gain protection, the rest will be vulnerable for a long time to come.

“This is probably one of our last opportunities to get significant protection for a lot of the areas around the Weminuche Wilderness,” he said. “It’s been 25 years since the last plan revision, and it’ll probably be 25 years until the next. This is a significant opportunity that’s being missed by the Forest Service to provide some certainty for the future.”

At the same time, Carroll countered that nothing is written in stone at this point. Advocates and citizens still have a great deal of time to weigh-in and shape the future of the San Juan National Forest.

“We’re still a long ways away from there being a wilderness designation on this forest,” he said. “We’re going to have a long time to talk through these things and work them out.”

More information on the draft forest plan can be found at: http://ocs.fortlewis.edu/forestPlan. •

An alternative designation for theHermosa Creek Roadless Area could provide wilderness-like protection and allow mountain bikes to continue to use the area./Photo by David Halterman