summer 2014: the wilderness 50th anniversary issue
TRANSCRIPT
I t’s never a bad idea to stop and smell the roses. So once
in 50 years, at least, we owe it to ourselves to make a point of cel-ebrating the wilderness – and the idea of wilderness – that makes our country great.
This year marks the 50th an-niversary of the Wilderness Act. Signed into law by President Lyndon Johnson on Sept. 3, 1964, the Wilderness Act established the National Wilderness Preservation System, and got the ball rolling by designating the first 54 wilderness areas. These were the first-round draft picks – the very paragons of wilderness – and among that number was our own Maroon Bells-Snowmass.
That was just the beginning of
our region’s role in the wilderness movement. In the two decades that followed, local citizens’ cam-paigns secured seven other wil-derness areas on the White River National Forest, and more than doubled the size of the original Maroon Bells-Snowmass Wilder-ness – permanently protecting more than 750,000 acres, nearly a third of the Forest.
Members of the Aspen Wilder-ness Workshop (as it was then called), led by Connie Harvey, Joy Caudill and Dottie Fox, were the boots on the ground for these efforts in the Roaring Fork water-shed. Folks like Bill Mounsey and Chuck Ogilby played a similar
WILDERNESS FIVE-O
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protecting wild places and wildlife, for their sake – and ours
The 50th anniversary of the Wilderness Act is a cause for celebration!
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Top: The Maroon Bells-Snowmass Wilderness was established with the passage of the Wilderness Act in 1964. The original area comprised only the core of the Elk Range; it took 16 more years for the As-pen Wilderness Workshop, led by “Maroon Belles” Connie Harvey, Dottie Fox and Joy Caudill (above), to get Congress to expand its boundaries to include places like American and Cathedral Lakes and Mount Sopris.
Wilderness 50 Events Pg. 5 • Hike/projects Schedule Pg. 7
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role in the Eagle Valley. Thanks to that “greatest generation,” we and our children and grandchildren will be able to enjoy these magnifi-cent areas in their natural state in perpetuity.
Is that a cause for celebration or what?
This summer and fall, the Wilder-ness Workshop is spearheading a series of events to commemorate the big Five-O; highlights are a gigantic Maroon Bells Birthday Bash at the base of Aspen Highlands on Aug. 2, and a wilderness sympo-sium at the Aspen Institute’s Paepcke Auditorium on Sept. 10. Be sure to mark your calendar – see the sched-ule on page 5.
Humility and restraint
The Wilderness Act has been called “the most beautiful piece of legislation ever written.” In soar-ing language that was hammered out over eight years and dozens of drafts, it speaks of the need “to secure for the American people of present and future generations the benefits of an enduring resource of wilderness.” In its most memorable passage, it defines wilderness as “an area where the earth and its commu-nity of life are untrammeled by man, where man himself is a visitor who does not remain.”
In signing the Act, President John-son contributed a bit of homespun commentary that’s just as worth recalling: “If future generations are to remember us with gratitude rather
than contempt, we must leave them a glimpse of the world as it was in the beginning, not just after we got through with it.”
It was, and remains, an historic gesture of humility and restraint toward the natural world.
Challenging the view that the value of land is measurable only in board-feet of lumber or tons of ore, the Act asserts that wilderness itself is a resource – and one that grows more valuable in a time of increas-ing population and modernization. The landmark legislation laid down a philosophical foundation that has permanently shaped our national consciousness.
It establishes, as a matter of law and policy, that it’s in the national interest to set aside some places to remain in their natural state. It
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WILDERNESS FIVE-0 FROM PAGE 1
The appropriately named Raggeds Wilderness was part of a massive wave of areas designated by the Colorado Wilderness Act of 1980.
In the 1960s, the Colorado Department of Transportation wanted to route I-70 through a tunnel under the Gore Range-Eagles Nest Primitive Area to shave 11 miles off the Vail Pass route. Eagle Valley citizens rallied to block the plan, and then cam-paigned to protect the area as the Eagles Nest Wilderness in 1976.
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doesn’t go into much detail about why; its framers were savvy enough to know not to limit the Act’s force by enumeration.
But 50 years later, the value of wilderness becomes ever clearer. Even as we alter our planet at an ever-accelerating pace, we’re bet-ter understanding the extent of our impacts on ecosystems. More than ever, we need large “untrammeled” places where wildlife can find refuge, where natural processes can continue to play out, and yes, where we humans can find solitude and recreation.
The Wilderness Act didn’t just pro-tect certain places; it also stipulated how we humans should behave in them, and this too has proved to be prescient.
The Act prohibits not only roads and structures, but also mechanized travel. While some bemoan this as discrimination against bikes and other machines, in effect it’s a speed limit. As our machines become faster and more powerful, they enable us to go places we previously didn’t go, and to cover more ground and impose more impacts. In wilderness, we must leave our wheels at the
trailhead and go at the pace that our feet (or a horse) will take us.
Wilderness is the slow food of recreation – it’s a country road com-pared to the interstate of our daily lives. There are benefits in taking the slow road, both for the traveler and for the land.
Leading horses to water
Establishing a first batch of wil-derness areas and defining how they would be protected was only the beginning of the Wilderness Act’s genius. What makes it worth cel-ebrating now, 50 years later, is that it provided for the designation of additional wilderness areas through further acts of Congress.
It’s that enabling function that has leveraged the original 54 wilderness areas into more than 700, expand-ing the National Wilderness Pres-ervation System from just 9 million acres in 1964 to nearly 110 million acres today.
While only Congress can des-ignate wilderness, citizens play an essential role in leading those political horses to water. One of the first groups to seize the opportunity
Conservationists led by the Aspen Wilderness Workshop spent much of the 1960s and ’70s saving the Hunter Creek Valley, first from residential development and then from a massive water diversion project. Prevailing on both fights, they went on to secure designation of the Hunter-Fryingpan Wilderness in 1978.
You could say the idea of wilderness was born in what is now the Flat Tops Wilderness. In 1919, a young For-est Service engineer named Arthur Carhart was sent to Trappers Lake to plot planned vacation home sites. Upon his return, Carhart boldly advised his superiors that the best use of the area was wilderness recreation; his action inspired fellow conservationist Aldo Leopold to champion the creation of the first Wilderness Reserve (what is now New Mexico’s Gila Wilderness), and later led to the protection of the Flat Tops as a Primitive Area.CONTINUED ON NEXT PAGE
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offered by the Wilderness Act was Aspen’s own Wilderness Workshop.
Connie, Joy, Dottie and their crew correctly perceived that wilderness was a constituent issue that lent itself well to grassroots organizing. By pioneering the use of on-the-ground inventorying, mapping, petitions, public events and the like, they helped pioneer the model of the modern citizens’ wilderness cam-paign.
Theirs was a simpler, less partisan and less recreationally intense time. Big blank spots on the map like the Hunter-Fryingpan and Collegiate
Peaks were low-hanging fruit, ripe for wilderness designation. Even then, it took more than a decade of campaigning, with much of that time spent parrying threats like water diversions and interstate highways. When victory came, it came in a rush: two bills, in 1978 and 1980, established most of the wilderness acreage on the White River National Forest.
These days, building consensus around new wilderness is a complex process. Sen. Mark Udall’s Central Mountains proposal, together with a related bill in the House by Rep.
Jared Polis, represents a hopeful return to the golden era of big, bold wilderness bills of the 1970s and ’80s. Udall’s proposal has passed through every conceivable screen and has successfully addressed virtu-ally all the concerns of myriad user groups and special interests, and is ready for introduction in Congress. (Rep. Polis’s bill has already been introduced, and is poised for reintro-duction this summer.)
In the old days, this would have been more than half the battle. Now, it takes a lot more to get Congress to take action on such matters. Public lands bills are pawns in the wider ideological war; they may advance,
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WILDERNESS FIVE-0 FROM PREVIOUS PAGE
Left: While the bulk of the Collegiate Peaks Wilderness lies in the Arkansas River drainage, it also includes part of the upper Roaring Fork watershed south of Highway 82. WW advocates contributed to the effort that led to its establishment under the Colorado Wilderness Act of 1980, along with 30 other areas. Below: The Holy Cross Wilderness has been revered by pilgrims ever since William Henry Jackson first photographed the famed mountain’s cross of snow in 1873. The giant Homestake water diver-sion project, completed in 1967, sent a warning shot across the area’s bow, and the Homestake II proposal galvanized a movement for its protection. It received wilderness designation in 1980.
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Summer 2014 | Wild Works 5
Join us in celebrating the 50th anniversary of the Wilderness Act with these special events!
The Wilderness Act was signed into law by President Lyndon B. Johnson on September 3, 1964. Throughout 2014, communities around the country are celebrating this historic act of human restraint and humility toward the natural world.
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2 0 1 4 r oa r i n g f o r k v a l l e y e v e n t s
The valley’s favorite festival celebrates the 50th with the theme Wild At Heart: Celebrating our People, Town, and Wilderness.
carbondale mountain fair July 25-27An evening with national and local wilderness experts, examining the legacy of the Wilderness Act and the challenges of the next 50 years. Speakers will include Dave Foreman, former U.S. Senator Tim Wirth, Jamie Williams, Gloria Flora and John Fielder. At Aspen’s Paepcke Auditorium.
wilderness symposium Sept. 10
See the Forest Service’s Rocky Mountain Regional Pack String - a team of mule and horse ambassadors - in the Aspen July 4 parade.
parade July 4
Party like it’s 1964! It’s the 50th birthday of the Maroon Bells-Snowmass Wilderness, so a big community-wide party - complete with cake and candles - is in order. And where better to do it than at Aspen Highlands, the gateway to the Bells?
The outdoor event will feature live music by multiple bands, inspiring words by author/activist Rick Bass, a Ute Nation perfor-mance, kids’ activities, wilderness displays, and food and drink deals by the Highlands Alehouse. Other free activities will be offered during the day by various local organizations.
Tickets and full schedule at MaroonBells50.org
maroon bells b-day Bash Aug. 2
Renowned landscape photog-rapher John Fielder is com-memorating the 50th anni-versary of the Wilderness Act with a touring exhibition of his most breathtaking images. Catch the show while it’s on display at Aspen’s Wheeler Opera House.
Wilderness in pictures July 15-Aug. 16
To honor the 50th anniversary of the Wilderness Act, the Aspen Music Festival's Sunday afternoon concert will feature Leonard Slatkin conducting Richard Strauss's majestic tone poem to nature.
Alpine symphony Aug. 3
This summer our free hike se-ries showcases lesser-known destinations in local wilder-ness areas, and our habitat restoration program focuses on projects in existing wilder-ness. See p. 7 for schedule.
Guided Hikes & projects June-Sept.
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sometimes suddenly, but it’s a long waiting game.
Despite political uncertainty, the Wilderness Act remains as relevant as ever. Nothing else compares – it’s the gold standard of conservation, affording the strongest, most endur-ing protection for federal public lands.
The next 50 years
And what of the next 50 years? The need for such protection will only increase.
Climate change threatens to force plant and animal communities northwards and uphill. Increasing human population and new forms of recreation will likely put more pres-sure on our public lands. Drilling, mining and other forms of resource extraction will continue to fragment wildlife habitat.
Wilderness can provide resiliency
in the face of these changes – if we manage it carefully, and add to it where appropriate.
But for all the good and logical reasons to protect wilderness, in the end, utilitarian arguments don’t fully state the case. As Wallace Stegner famously wrote,
“That is the reason we need to put into effect, for its [the land’s] preservation, some other principle than the principles of exploitation or ‘usefulness’ or even recreation. We simply need that wild country avail-able to us, even if we never do more than drive to its edge and look in. For it can be a means of reassuring ourselves of our sanity as creatures, a part of the geography of hope.”
So we celebrate the wilderness that has been handed down to us, and we invest in it our hope, with
interest, for the next generation.
The youngest of the White River National Forest’s eight wilderness areas, the Ptarmigan Peak Wilderness was
designated in 1993. Summit County residents originally proposed a 75,000-acre area, but pressure from Denver
Water and the Federal Timber Purchasers Association re-duced it to 13,000. New proposals by Rep. Jared Polis and
Sen. Mark Udall would regain some of the lost acreage.
WILDERNESS FIVE-0 FROM PAGE 4
Since 2008, WW’s Artist in Wilderness program has offered residencies to al-
low artists to make works inspired by the lands that we’re working to protect.
The selected artists are provided with housing, a generous stipend and travel expenses, and a guide if they need one. In return, they give us one piece resulting from their residency.
Finally, after six years, the program has acquired enough works to fulfill its other purpose, which is sell them off to raise money for our conservation work.
You can see the pieces – and bid on
them – at wildernessworkshop.org/auction. The online auction will remain open until 12 noon on Wednesday, Aug. 20. Please bid early and often! The highest bidders for each piece will be our guests at the annual gathering of the Maroon Bells Circle (WW’s national council) on Friday, Aug. 22, where the art will be sold by silent auction.
Meanwhile, we’ve received a record number of entries for the next two Artist in Wilderness residencies, in fall 2014 and spring/summer 2015. The jury, led by WW board member Mary Dominick, will an-nounce the winners in August.
ART AUCTION TO BENEFIT WW
“Across the Valley II,” by Richard White (0il on linen, 2010)
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restorationprojects
restore a wildlife corridor
restore a wetland
restore a trail
Sat. July 19 : Ashcroft, Castle Creek ValleyRemove old barbed-wire fencing to allow animals to move freely across a high alpine valley.
Sat.-Sun., Aug. 23-34 : Crooked Creek Pass Reservoir The Forest Service is removing this reservoir to restore a former wetland; our crew will car-camp in the area and revegetate the area with willows and other native species.
Sat.-Sun., Sept. 6-7 : Thomas Lake Trail Reconfigure the trail to the summit of Mount Sopris, which crosses sensitive terrain above treeline and was never properly constructed. Because of its remoteness, the crew will camp overnight.
hike seriesfree Guided hikes
to explore our local backcountr
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2014 Schedulejoin us this summer!
learn more and sign up at www.WildernessWorkshop.org
july
AUGUST
SEPT
rsvp required!
9 (Wed.) Hunter Creek Wildflower Hike WITh aCES, neaR aspen
11 (fri.) Hay Park Full Moon, Base of mt. sopris
12-13 (Sat.-Sun.) frying pan lakes, holy cross wilderness (overnight)
19 (Sat.) Hoosier Ridge, near Breckenridge
20 (Sun.) Savage Lakes, holy cross wilderness
2 (Sat.) East Maroon Pass, Maroon Bells-Snowmass Wilderness
9 (Sat.) McCullough Gulch, proposed Tenmile Wilderness Area
9 (Sat.) Tabor Lake, Collegiate Peaks Wilderness
10 (Sun.) East Willow, Thompson Divide
16 (Sat.) West Lake Creek, proposed wilderness area near Avon
17 (Sun.) Marion Gulch, Thompson Divide
23 (SAt) spraddle creek, proposed wilderness area north of vail
13-14 (Sat.-Sun.) Lake Ridge Lakes, Thompson Divide (overnight)
20 (Sat.) Marble Peak, Raggeds Wilderness |
21 (Sun.) Bull Dog Creek, Proposed Crystal River Wilderness
Hikes and projects marked with this symbol are part of a series of events to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the Wilderness Act. See full schedule on page 5.
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ON THE RIGHT TRACK
The White River National Forest is proposing to construct a new
single-track dirtbike trail between Basalt and Gypsum. The 11-mile-long Green Gate Trail would traverse forested backcountry just west of Basalt Mountain and Red Table, two areas we’ve been working to protect for more than a decade.
You may be wondering why we haven’t come out against it.
While adding a new motorized route through the backcountry isn’t something we’re thrilled about, we see this as a net gain. The area is currently fragmented by a network of
about 20 miles of bandit trails; this project offers the opportunity to re-place those trails with a shorter, less impactful alignment and to move the parking lot out of a wetland. Another part of the deal is that the Forest Service will step up enforcement in the area to prevent illegal riding and trail construction, so overall impacts should be reduced.
Colorado Parks and Wildlife views this as the least bad of the available options, and will hopefully join us in asking for seasonal trail closures to further protect wildlife.
The White River National For-
est committed to this basic travel scenario in its 2011 Travel Manage-ment Plan, which we supported and which was a strong win for wildlife and watersheds.
Since then, we’ve also been working closely with the valley’s local dirt-biking group, the Colorado Backcountry Trail Riders Association, on this project. They’ve been a key part of the effort to move from the status quo of riding illegally cre-ated routes to “staying the trail” and ensuring future use occurs only on the new legal trail.
recreational playground, critical wildlife habitat, a renowned hunting area, summer pasture for local ranch
operations and the source of water for communities and farms – all of this would be put at risk by oil and gas development.
But the Thompson Divide isn’t the only special place in our region that’s threatened by drilling.
In April, WW took the next step in a long-running effort to protect eight roadless areas on the White River National Forest that contain oil and gas leases that we contend were issued illegally (see page 8). Four of them are within the Thomp-son Divide; the other four stretch westwards from there, and comprise much of the high country that’s vis-ible to the south of I-70 between Silt and Debeque.
While not as well known as the Thompson Divide, we believe these four areas – Housetop Mountain, Mamm Peak, Reno Mountain and
Baldy Mountain – are just as worthy of protection. For a start, they’re roadless! What’s more, together they form a long, wild, mid-elevation corridor that’s critical to our region’s wildlife. Rugged and hard to access, these roadless areas are home to the best bear habitat in the state, and support large herds of elk and deer year-round. As oil and gas develop-ment continues to displace wildlife from the Colorado River Valley, these areas are becoming all the more important as refuges.
So amid all the campaigning to save the Thompson Divide, let’s spare a thought for its little-visited cousins to the west. They, too, deserve to be spared. That’s why we at the Wilderness Workshop asked BLM to cancel all 65 leases currently under review, not only the ones in
the Thompson Divide.
Located just west of the Thompson Divide, the Reno Mountain Roadless Area is in the path of oil and gas
development spreading southwards from Silt.
MORE THAN THE THOMPSON DIVIDE FROM PREVIOUS PAGE
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MORE THAN THE THOMPSON DIVIDE
Some places are too special to drill. Is that such a controver-
sial concept?Judging by the energy industry’s
rhetoric, you’d think that anyone questioning its right to develop every square inch of land with fossil fuels under it is a hemp-clad ecoterrorist bent on dynamiting the American dream.
Or an Aspen one-percenter who wants his private jet and his heated driveway but is strangely squeamish about fracking fluid in his kale. The industry scatters its shot pretty broadly.
Despite such hyperventilations, the vast majority of regular folks take a more balanced view of the situation. Drilling is going to hap-pen in many places, but it doesn’t have to happen everyplace.
The Thompson Divide has become a national poster child for
“too special to drill,” of course, and if you’re reading this newsletter you’re probably familiar with what’s at stake there. A massive, 220,000 swath of backcountry, a year-round
This spring, citizens of the Roar-ing Fork Valley told the BLM
in no uncertain terms to nix 65 “deficient” oil and gas leases in the Thompson Divide and elsewhere on the White River National Forest.
Hundreds of people attended BLM public meetings in Aspen, Carbondale and Glenwood Springs,
with every single speaker calling for the leases to be voided. (A fourth meeting, held in Debeque, not surprisingly drew almost entirely pro-drilling comments.)
Meanwhile, more than 30,000 people emailed comments telling the BLM to consider canceling the leases. We want to thank the Natural
Resources Defense Council, Wilder-ness Society, Conservation Colorado and other groups for sending out alerts, and all of you who attended the meetings or wrote comments.
The BLM’s review of these leases got off to a somewhat confusing start, because it came just days after the agency announced it was ex-tending 25 leases in the Thompson Divide for another two years.
So, to clarify: the 25 leases in the Thompson Divide are a subset of the 65 leases that the BLM is reviewing. Although they’ve been extended,
they haven’t been approved for development, and they could go away entirely as a result of this pro-cess. Thus the lease review has the potential not only to remove a major part of the threat to the Thompson Divide, but also to spare four other roadless areas from drilling (see next page).
“Deficient” is the word the feds use to describe these 65 leases; we contend they’re illegal. The BLM itself admits that it issued them in violation of environmental laws in the 1990s and early 2000s. The problem is something we’ve been focused on for a long time. In 2004, WW and Pitkin County protested three leases that had been issued in the Thompson Divide with the exact same “deficiencies”; those leases were finally voided in 2009.
The process that the BLM has initiated to remedy the problem
VOID THE LEASES
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MISTAKES WERE MADE: A 20-YEAR TIMELINE OF OIL & GAS LEASING IN OUR AREA
Students spoke out at one of the BLM’s public meetings in April.
The Mamm Peak Roadless Area, south of Silt, runs the gamut from steep cliffs to bear-rich forests.
involves a number of stages and an Environmental Impact Statement. The recent meetings and public comment period were only the first step, known as scoping, because the agency must first determine the scope of what it will consider in its analysis.
Scoping is when you have to speak up if you want issues to be analyzed, and that’s why we asked you to tell the BLM to include void-ing the leases and modifying their terms among the options that it had to consider.
The BLM says it’s going to take until next summer to produce the draft EIS, and the final decision won’t come until the summer of 2016. However, expect a flurry of activity this summer on a related matter, when the White River Na-tional Forest issues its long-awaited final oil and gas leasing plan. The BLM is likely to rely heavily on that plan for guidance on what to do about its 65 leases. We’ll be pushing hard for a plan that allows no further leasing in the Thompson Divide and that adequately protects roadless areas across the Forest.
Illegal leases threaten four other roadless areas, too.
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The BLM calls them “deficient”; we contend they’re illegal.
2000 2005 2010 2013 2014 20152011 2012 2016 20171995
White River NF begins revising its oil & gas leasing plan
Federal Roadless Rule implemented
BLM to issue final EIS on deficient leases
White River NF to release final oil & gas leasing plan/Record of De-cision, which will inform BLM’s deficiency EIS
BLM admits leas-ing “deficiencies”
Current White River National Forest oil & gas leasing plan finalized
WW and Pitkin County begin challenging new leases and development in roadless areas
BLM to issue draft EIS on deficient leases
White River NF releases draft leasing plan
Piceance Basin drilling boom starts ramping up; BLM takes “lease now, look later” approach
BLM launches review of 65 deficient leases, holds public scoping meetings
Colorado Roadless Rule implemented
3 Thompson Divide leases voided as a result of WW/Pitkin challenge
You are here
In March, the almost-final Re-source Management Plan for
our local BLM lands hit with an electronic thud: if you printed it all out, it’d probably fill a bookshelf. Its release triggered a 45-day protest pe-riod, and there was much to protest.
This is an important document, as it will serve as a blueprint for development on a half-million acres of public lands in the Colorado, Roaring Fork and Eagle valleys over the next 20 years. (The current plan, issued in 1984 and amended several times, is woefully out of date.)
WW has been engaged in the revision of this plan since 2007, nudging it toward something that will do a better job of protecting our public lands over the long term. But while the latest version has its mer-its, we find its handling of oil and gas development and protections for special places to be unacceptable. So WW staff attorney Peter Hart ral-lied an A-Team of analysts, experts and partner organizations, and drafted two formal protests.
Honestly, the plan’s analysis of potential oil and gas development is a pretty flat-footed exercise, revealing an agency that’s unable or unwilling to commit itself to protect-ing the land and public health. Our first protest takes the plan to task for failing to factor recent trends into its projections of future enery develop-ment.
Consider the “Beast.” That’s what industry insiders are calling a well drilled into shale formations near Parachute last year that produced
as much gas in its first 100 days as a typical well in this region does in 20 years. The Beast is the highest-performing shale gas well in the nation, followed closely by another
well drilled nearby. The fracking recipes and drilling techniques used to drill and produce these wells, along with the extraordinary initial production, represent big changes in the way drilling is done in the Piceance Basin, but the BLM’s plan hardly registers the risks and impacts that could come with it.
The potential impacts are far-ranging and grave: air quality, water quality and quantity, disposal of wastewater, traffic, human health, earthquakes, climate change and more. Our protest delivers a thor-ough critique of the BLM’s analysis, and recommends how to do better.
In the second protest, we urge the BLM to protect places that it found to have wilderness characteristics but opted not to protect in the plan. And we challenge its cursory review of many other areas that may have wilderness character, according to agency guidance; we’ve asked the agency to take a closer look at these areas, and defer approving develop-
ment there in the meantime.Case in point: the Grand Hog-
back, that sweeping rock curtain that stretches from I-70 near New Castle up to Rifle Gap and beyond.
The plan identifies over 11,000 acres of it that qualify as Lands with Wilderness Characteristics – yet hastily dismisses the idea of manag-ing to protect those values because of the potential for oil and gas development there.
Our protest also asks the BLM to restrict motorized travel on a hor-ribly eroded road in the Thompson Creek area, southwest of Carbon-dale, and to protect greater sage-grouse habitat in the Castle Peak area north of Eagle.
The BLM has indicated that it would like to have protests resolved by August of this year. A Record of Decision should follow and the new plan could become the law of the land later this year. We’ll continue pushing this agency to produce the best possible plan, even if it’s like rolling a boulder uphill.
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LIKE ROLLING A BOULDER UPHILL
The BLM’s plan could do more to protect greater sage- grouse in the Castle Peak area north of Eagle.
We and our partners are demanding stronger action on oil and gas and special places in the
BLM’s Resource Management Plan.
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JOIN OUR MONTHLY GIVING CLUB
There’s a small but growing band of folks who are sup-porting the Wilderness Workshop in a way that’s more
convenient for them, and more helpful for WW. They’re our monthly givers, and we love them!
If you’re a once-a-year giver, you might look into setting up recurring payments through our online donation page (wil-dernessworkshop.org/give). You can choose to have payments deducted monthly, weekly or whatever. It’s easy, secure and painless, because you’ll be spreading your contribution out over the year.
If you’ve been meaning to support WW, but weren’t sure you could make a meaningful donation, recurring giving could be the way to go. You’ll hardly notice the monthly pay-ments, yet they’ll add up to a sizeable annual gift.
Slow and steady: that’s the easiest way to climb a mountain, and it’s the most efficient way to support your local conserva-tion nonprofit! Your regular donations will provide a reliable flow of funding for the crucial, long-term work of safeguarding our wild places and wildlife. Thanks for your help!
The Wilderness Workshop board recently added two new mem-
bers – without losing any old ones!Allyn Harvey has
been a Wilderness Workshop supporter and ally since 2008, when he acted as communications consultant to the Hid-den Gems Wilderness Campaign. A former Aspen Times reporter and managing editor, he now runs his own public and media rela-tions company, Allyn Harvey Communica-tions.
Allyn also somehow manages to juggle being a member of the Carbondale Board of Trustees and a found-ing board member of
the nonprofit Sopris Sun.Lindsay Gurley moved to the
Roaring Fork Valley from Denver in
2010 to work as a summer naturalist for the Aspen Center for Environ-mental Studies, and went on to work as a staffer for the Community Office for Resource Efficiency (CORE). She currently teaches yoga at True Nature Healing Arts as well as of-fering privates and health coaching throughout the valley.
Since childhood Lindsay has been deeply rooted in wilderness, and she says she’s thrilled and honored to join the WW board and can’t wait to share her energy in the amazing work of the WW team.
We’d also like to heap vast praise on our new board president, Karin Teague, who has inspired board and staff alike by her passionate leadership and her hard work on the Wilderness 50 event series.
And by the way, our staff mem-bers haven’t been letting any grass grow under their feet, either in or out of the office.
Executive director Sloan Shoe-maker continues to chair the Colo-rado Bark Beetle Cooperative, and is
planning a large public meeting this fall on community resilience in the face of changing forests.
Will Roush has been promoted to the position of conservation director, and has been invited to speak at the National Wilderness Conference in Albuquerque in October.
Staff attorney Peter Hart and his wife Katy welcomed their second child, Asa, in February. In March, Peter was a panelist at the Public Interest Environmental Law Confer-ence in Eugene, Oregon.
Operations and outreach coor-dinator Melanie Finan spent the months of April and May in Bali and other exotic locales.
Development and communica-tions director has just returned from an extracurricular trip to DC as a volunteer for Citizens’ Climate Lobby.
And part-time community orga-nizer Alex Bethel recently completed a course in Leadership, Organizing and Action through Harvard’s Ken-nedy School.
WW WELCOMES NEW BOARD MEMBERS
Lindsay Gurley
Allyn Harvey
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$25,000+ Anonymous
New-Land Foundation
$10,000-25,000 Tom and Currie Barron/
Merlin Foundation
Jim Bonesteel
Gayle Embry/Embry Family Foundation
Peter Looram and Owen McHaney
The Cynthia and George Mitchell Foundation
Rob Pew
Pitkin County
Eaden and Deva Shantay/The Cohen Family Fund of the Community Foundation for Southeast Michigan
Hansjoerg Wyss/Wyss Charitable Endowment
$5,000-9,999 City of Aspen
John and Laurel Catto/Alpen-glow Foundation
Marcia Corbin
Felicity Huffman
John and Laurie McBride/ABC Foundation
Martens Foundation
iMarcie and Robert Musser Advised Fund at Aspen Community Foundation
Pew Charitable Trusts
Carol Racine
RCG Fund
Garry and Sharon Snook
$2,000-4,999 Town of Carbondale
Chelsea Congdon and James
Brundige
Annie Cooke
Marty and Sarah Flug
Moore Huffman, Jr.
Bill Hunt/Oak Lodge Foundation
Fred and Elli Iselin Founda-tion
Islands Advised Fund at Aspen Community Foun-dation
Lynn Nichols and Jim Gilchrist
Marty Pickett and Edgell Pyles
Jill Soffer
Mark Tache
Thendara Foundation
$1,000-1,999 Arches Foundation
Aspen Associates Realty Group
Connor Bailey/Warrington Foundation
Kay Brunnier
Shelley Burke and Al Nemoff
Anneliese Chumley
Frannie Dittmer
Mary Dominick and Sven Coomer
Carol Duell
Bill Fales and Marj Perry
Wallace and Kristen Graham
Lucy Hahn
Joe Henry
Judy and Amory Lovins
David Newberger
Wendy and Hank Paulson
Pitkin County
Ken Ransford, P.C.
Reese Henry & Co.
Ford and Susan Schumann
$500-999
Anonymous
Aspen Square Condominium Association
Bruce Berger
Debbie and Marc Bruell
Beth Cashdan and Paul D’Amato
Douglas and Lynne DeNio
Drew DePaul
Leslie Desmond
Maggie DeWolf
Sue Edelstein and Bill Spence
Jane and Dick Hart
Ann Johnson
Judith Lapkin Craig
Henry Lowe
Martha and Mke McCoy
Kent and Elizabeth Meager
Marjory Musgrave
Blanca and Cavanaugh O’Leary
Susan O’Neal
Patagonia
Ken and Emily Ransford
Roaring Fork Valley Horse Council
Bill Stirling
Harry Teague Architects
Drs. Rick and Alice Voorhees and Bedard-Voorhees, in memory of Randy Udall
Paula Zurcher
$250-499 Gina Berko
Phil and Sunny Brodsky
Kristine Crandall
Susan Fesus
Donna Fisher and Skip Behrhorst
Lynn and Judy Hancock
Ann Harvey and Mike Campbell
Kristen Henry
David Houggy*, in honor of Charlie Hopton
Sandy Jackson
Colby June Jewelry
Tita and Dan McCarty
Michael McVoy and Michal Brimm
Barney and Dot Mulligan
Tom Newland
Ragged Mountain Sports
Barbara Reese
Roaring Fork Audubon Society
Tara and Casey Sheahan
Pat Spitzmiller
Deidre Stancioff
Jay and Patti Webster
Susan Welsch and Everett Peirce
Toni Zurcher, in memory of Christoper H. Smith
$100-249 Bob Adams
Barbara Andre
Anonymous
David Arnold*
Camilla and Raymond Auger
Paul and Carole Auvil
Marti and Charles Bauer
Georges Becus*
Richard Beresford
Diana Beuttas
Don Birnkrant
Gavin Brooke
William Brunworth
Judith Byrns
Rick and Lorrie Carlson
Steve Child
Ned Cochran
Charles and Janice Collins
Gesine Crandall
Crystal Valley Environmental Protection Association
Chuck Downey
Michele Dressel*
The Wilderness Workshop wishes to thank the following generous people who have made donations since the previous newsletter. New members are indicated by an asterisk (*).
DONOR HALL OF FAME
CONTINUED ON NEXT PAGE
Paul David Ellis
Susy Ellison and Marty Schlein
Jan and Jerry Fedrizzi
Connie and Ted Finan
Jim Finch
Jerry and Nanette Finger*
Al Fiorello, in memory of Dottie Fox
Audrey Sattler and Don Fleisher
Annie Flynn*, in memory of Randy Udall
Lynelle Fowler
Cici Fox
Dorothy Frommer
Jim Githens and Valerie Gil-liam
Donna and Bernie Grauer
Joyce and Bill Gruenberg
Brewster Hansen*
Mary and Shep Harris
Trautlinde Heater
Sue Helm
Casady Henry, in honor of Mark Fuller and Penny Atzet
Karen Hessl*
Ann Hodges
Gail and Phil Holstein
Kate Hudson*
Tai and Molly Jacober
Leslie and Patrick Johnson
Sarah Johnson
Patrick and Donna Keelty
Collins and Patrick Kelly, in honor of Will Roush
Laurie Loeb
Patricia Maddalone
Howie Mallory
Mirte Mallory
Alex Gay Marks
Bill and Sally Meadows
Tom and Lindy Melberg
Joe Mincberg*
Vyonne Mincberg*
Elsa Mitchell
Carolyn Moore
Pam Moore
Sue Mozian
Jim Neu*
George and Liz Newman
Rebecca Norman Dvorak*
Virginia Parker
Lee Parker*
Bruce Parlette
Maggie Pedersen and Bob Millette
Julie and Greg Pickrell
Anne and Arny Porath
Jacquelyn Powers and Jourdan Dern, in honor of Karin and Harry Teague
Irma Prodinger
Bob Purvis
Rich Ranieri*
Ron Reed
Ty and Terry Reed
Maggie Rerucha
William Roush
Steph and Ken Ryan
Sandy Shea
Carolyn and Dick Shohet
Roger Shugart
Carolyn Shurman*
Leonard Simmons*
Kim Stacey and John Hoffman
Sandy and Stephen Stay
Hjalmar Sundin
David and Geni Swersky
Sally Tischler
Tom and Roz Turnbull
Denny and Linda Vaughn
Mary Ann Wallace*
Annie Ware
Dexter Williams
Hugh and Mary Wise
Maggie Woods, in memory of Dottie Fox and Jackie Chandler
King Woodward
Pam Zentmyer*
Edward Zukoski
$50-99 Anonymous*
Carol Bayens
Lee Beck and John Stickney
Robert and Tracy Bennett
Nancy Berry
Jeff and Janette Bier
Mary Sue Bonetti
Betsy Bowie
Charlyn Canada
Susan Cashel*
Lee Cassin
Patricia Chew, in memory of
Lucy Chew
Jeanette Darnauer
Barb and Doug D’Autrechy
Don Davidson
Rachel Dayton and Chip Mccrory
Kimberly Defries
Barbara Dills*
David Eberhardt
Greer and Bruce Fox
John Fox, in memory of Dottie Fox
Ruth and Peter Frey
Mark Fuller
Walter Gallacher
Sara Garton
Jon Gibans
Randy Gold and Dawn Shepard
Anne Goldberg
Candace Goodwin
Les Gray
Janet Guthrie*
Richard and Sheryl Herrington
Katherine Hubbard
John Isaacs
Bob and Eilene Ish
Suzanne Jackson
Sandra and Peter Johnson
Shael Johnson
Gary L. Johnson*
Suzanne Jones
Deborah Jones and John Katzenberger
Kristan Kaplinski*
Laura Kirk and Dave Carpenter
Wild Works | JUNE 201214 Wild Works | Summer 201414
DONORS FROM PREVIOUS PAGE
We hope you caught some of this past winter’s Naturalist Nights presentations
at ACES and the Third Street Center. But if you missed any, you can still watch them online at our website (wildernessworkshop.org/video).
Thank you to our sponsors who made it possible for us to have GrassRoots TV record the presentations: Alpine Bank, Aspen Ski-
ing Company, Bristlecone Mountain Sports, Days Inn Carbondale, Filson, KUUR, Main Street Gallery & The Framer, Ragged Mountain Sports, Reese Henry & Co., St. Moritz Lodge & Condominiums, Stirling Peak Properties, The Big Wrap, The Connected Concierge, True Nature Healing Arts, Two Leaves Tea Company, and Tyrolean Lodge.
WATCH NATURALIST NIGHTS ONLINE
JUNE 2012 | Wild Works 15Summer 2014 | Wild Works 15
P.O. Box 1442Carbondale, CO 81623
Offices in the Third Street Center, 520 S. 3rd St., Carbondale
Tel (970) [email protected]
The Wilderness Workshop’s mis-sion is to protect and conserve the wilderness and natural resources
of the Roaring Fork Watershed, the White River National Forest, and
adjacent lands.
Board of DirectorsKarin Teague,
President
Michael McVoy, Vice President
Peter Looram, Co-Treasurer
Charles Hopton, Co-Treasurer
Cici Fox, Secretary
Beth CashdanMary Dominick Sue Edelstein
Lindsay GurleyAllyn Harvey
John McBride, Jr.Tim McFlynn Aron Ralston
Mike StranahanPeter Van Domelen
Andy Wiessner
FoundersJoy CaudillDottie Fox
Connie Harvey
StaffSloan Shoemaker, Executive Director
Melanie FinanPeter HartDave ReedWill Roush
Sarah and Steve Knous
Barbara Larime*
Lis Sue Layne
Susan Lindbloom
Cristal Logan*
Parker and Tilly Maddux
Malcolm McMichael
Cathy Montgomery
Stephanie and Dave Munk
Shari Nova
Tom Oken
Gracie Oliphant
Connie Overton and James Gilliam
Fred and Sandra Peirce
Elizabeth Penfield
William and Elizabeth Phillips
Susan Philp and Lance Clarke
Suzy and David Pines
Dale and Sally Potvin
Glenn Randall
Glenn Rappaport*
Gerald Roehm
Polly Ross
Susan Rothchild
Jill Sabella
Marius and Clare Sanger
Beth Schaefer
Renata Scheder-Bieschin
Sherry Schenk*
Jill and Michael Scher
Andre Schwegler*
Rosalinda Shearwood
Shelly Sheppick
Richard Simpson
Skye and Steve Skinner
Karn Stiegelmeier
Shelley Supplee and Hawk Greenway
Lynn Tanno
Diana Tomback
Margaret Truman
Gerry and Maria Vanderbeek
Eric Wahl
Tom and Donna Ward
Sylvia Wendrow and JD Sturgill
Polly Whitcomb
Jason White
Andre and Julie Wille
Jackie Wogan
Ed and Cindy Zasacky
Robert Zupancis
Up to $49 Anonymous
Debbie Crawford-Arensman and Russ Arensman
Mary Ballou
Eric Baumheier
Tony Bennet and Maureen Bennett Chew*
Kim Beroman*
Leslie Bethel
Maralyn Bloomer
Barb Brown*
Helen Carlsen
Willard Clapper
Jane Click
Virginia Culp
Dawn Dexter*
Tim Drescher*
Carol Dresner*
Stephen Ellsperman
Sally and Chris Faison
Renee Fleisher
Herb Fox*
Susan Frazee
Linda Froning*
Marty Ames and Steve Hach
Teresa Hall and Doug and Bent-ley Rager*
Kay Hannah
Sacha Hart-Logan
Huey Hurst
Elise Jones*
Jackie Kasabach
Debra Keller*
Reenie Kinney and Scott Hicks*
Kathleen Kopf
Sharon Clarke and Mark Lacy
Brad and Laurel Larson
Terry Lawson Dunn*
Patty Lecht
Alicia Lee*
Geoffrey Lester
Mary Logan*
Jennifer Long
Christine Lucht*
William Lukes + Associates Architecture
Renee Maggert
Julia Marshall/Mt. Daly Enterprises
Constance Matuschek
Matthew McKenna
Graeme and Liz Means
Rebecca Mirsky
Virginia Newton
Warren Ohlrich
Doc Philip
Pat and Michael Piburn
Heather Pratt*
Bob Rafelson*
Jim Rahman
John Real*
Alyssa and Dave Reindel*
Janie Rich and Scott, Tess and Lexie Munro*
Rachel Richards
Cooper Rogers*
Wiley Rogers*
Mary Russell
Janet Rutigliano*
Judith Schramm
Lee Sherman II*, in memory of Bam Sherman
Karen Siebert
Steve Skadron
Shayne Sledge*
Emilie Somerville
Justin Streeb*
Edward Swanick
George and Jenny Tempest
Timothy Tillman
John Tirrill*
Nicolette Toussaint*
Felicia Trevor*
Mike Truman*
Doug Tucker
Katie and Hank Van Schaack
John and Sarah Villafranco*
Kevin Ward
Deborah Webster
Julia Weese-Young*
Jacque Whitsitt*
Andy Wiessner
Robbie Williams*
Beka Wilson
Jeffrey Wuerker
Lisa Wuerker
Nancy Yang*
Daniel Yuhascik
Nathan Ziv*
NON-PROFIT ORG
U.S. POSTAGE
PAIDPERMIT NUMBER 62
CARBONDALE, CO
81623
Printed on 100% recycled paper. Please recycle this newsletter - pass it on to a friend!
ADDRESS SERVICE REQUESTED
P.O. BOX 1442CARBONDALE, CO 81623
tickets on sale at
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