Thirteen properties protected in Colorado’s San Juan Mountains

March 7, 2025-

In southwest Colorado, the Uncompahgre Wilderness meets the American Flats, Handies Peak, and Red Cloud Peak Wilderness Study Areas in the high peaks and sweeping vistas of the San Juan Mountains. Remnants of the area’s rich mining history scatter the mountainsides, including the Alpine Loop Scenic Byway— 63 miles of old mining roads turned off-road vehicle destination, which winds through seven ghost towns and traverses two high passes. In addition to OHV users, the area draws recreationists of all kinds, with several 14,000’+ peaks, the famous views and summer wildflower displays of American Basin, Lake Fork of the Gunnison River, and many alpine lakes.

Two years ago, the Trust purchased a group of 17 properties adjoining the Red Cloud and Handies Peak Wilderness Study Areas. With access from the Alpine Loop byway, these properties were at high risk of development for cabins, resorts, and other commercial recreation uses. We recently built off the success of that project with the purchase of another 13 properties in the same area.

Looking at a map there are no shortage of private properties within the surrounding public lands. But with these projects we have strategically targeted properties within or adjacent to the wilderness study areas (WSAs). WSAs, managed by the BLM, are areas with “a minimum size, naturalness, and outstanding opportunities for recreation which make them eligible for designation as wilderness.” In 1976, Congress directed the BLM to evaluate all of its land for the presence of wilderness characteristics, and identified areas became WSAs. The establishment of a WSA served to identify areas for Congress to consider for addition to the National Wilderness Preservation System. Until Congress makes a decision to add or end consideration of a WSA, the BLM manages the area to ensure its suitability for designation as wilderness is not impaired.

Removing private inholdings, and their uses which are incompatible with wilderness, from proposed wilderness areas such as WSAs is important in paving the way for them to potentially become designated wilderness one day. With 30 properties total now protected in these potential wilderness areas, together we have made real progress in unifying this landscape, which will not only aid in its future prospects of designation, but have the immediate benefit of preserving almost 300 acres of fragile alpine ecosystems, creaks, and public trails.

Public access to Colorado’s Chicago Basin protected!

January 24, 2025-

For most visitors, the hike to Chicago Basin in Colorado’s Weminuche Wilderness starts on the historic Durango & Silverton Narrow Gauge Railroad as it winds 30 miles through the mountains. From the train stop, the Needle Creek Trail climbs steadily for 6 miles till the valley opens up into the sweeping views of Chicago Basin and the surrounding peaks. Due to its convenient access from the train and to its iconic 14,000+ ft peaks, the basin is a popular destination, with heavy use through the summer months for hikers, backpackers, and mountaineers.

Most of those visitors who come to Chicago Basin for the scenic beauty and quiet solitude of the wilderness are unaware that the trail they’re traversing crosses several privately owned inholding properties where that experience is not guaranteed. Without the protections of the surrounding wilderness, these properties could be developed with cabins, resorts, or mining and timber operations. Suddenly their wilderness experience could be dominated by the buzz of chainsaws, the thwomp of landing helicopters, or even the trail blocked and closed to the public. This lingering threat to public access, as well as the integrity of the fragile, high alpine ecosystem has driven our work in the Weminuche, along with wilderness areas across the county.

The Trust recently protected our 15th property in the Weminuche Wilderness with the acquisition of a 30-acre private inholding property with both Needle Creek and the Needle Creek Trail running through it. With flat, buildable stream-side sites the property was at risk of development. Now protected, public access on the trail to Chicago Basin has been ensured for future generations to enjoy. Needle Creek is an important tributary to the Animas River. This water source, along with vibrant aspen groves that stretch from the creek up the slopes of the Needle Mountains, create habit for a wide range of wildlife. The Needle Creek property scores high for climate change resilience, biodiversity, and landscape connectivity, all important conservation values that will be protected as wilderness.

Now that the property has been acquired by the Trust, we will begin restoration work this summer to remove the remnants of a hunting camp left by a previous owner to restore it to its wilderness character prior to transfer to public ownership and addition to the wilderness. This project builds off the nearby 7-acre Emerald Lake property that the Trust acquired in 2018 and transferred to be added to the wilderness area in 2023.

Exploring the wilderness you love through maps

October 18, 2024-

In July we shared with you about our work to create a first of its kind GIS-based national inventory of private properties in and around wilderness. This tool has already been valuable in our work for how it allows us to explore the wild places we work in in a different way. We’re excited to share with you some free mapping tools that are available to the public to help you explore the wild places you love as well.

For many of us, some of our most memorable wilderness adventures began with pouring over a map: planning routes, interpreting how the topo lines would translate to the landscape under our feet. Maps help us to understand the vastness and connectedness of these wild places beyond what we can see from any valley or peak. While folding out a paper map on the trail will always be a quintessential wilderness experience, a new generation of mapping tools is helping us to understand wilderness in new ways.

The Find Wilderness tool from The Wilderness Society is an interactive map that asks where the wildest places are. With it you can visualize the wildest 30% of lands in the US, in each state, and in each county. You can scroll through the story map or click ‘explore data’ in the right hand corner to toggle between layers and zoom in on your home or favorite wilderness.

The Climate Atlas is a collaboration from several conservation groups to map six ecological indicators as well as composite models showing a location’s overall conservation value, importance in climate change mitigation, and importance in maintaining biodiversity. You can explore by zooming in on a specific landscape and switching between the composite models and individual indicators in the menu.

Probably the most complex of the three, The Resilient Lands Mapping Tool from The Nature Conservancy also maps composite models for resilience, connectivity & climate flow, and biodiversity. It also maps different component data for those models, including things like elevation, slope steepness, and bedrock and soil. You can also use more technical layers like soil carbon, vegetation and land cover, and different categories of conservation protection. This tool also allows you to draw a polygon on a specific property or area and have it analyzed for resiliency, connectivity, and climate flow.

Exploring the landscapes you care about, whether they are your own backyard or the wilderness areas you return to year after year, through maps can help deepen your understanding of and appreciation for them. After all, many of the things we value wilderness for most, like its clean air and water, thriving ecosystems, and balance of natural systems go beyond what our own eye can see. It is also essential to understanding what we are working to protect and what strategies have the most impact. We hope you enjoy nerding out on these maps as much as we do!

 

Get more wilderness news delivered to your inbox!

By submitting this form, you are consenting to receive marketing emails from: Wilderness Land Trust. You can revoke your consent to receive emails at any time by using the SafeUnsubscribe® link, found at the bottom of every email. Emails are serviced by Constant Contact

Fossil Ridge Wilderness grows with Trust’s 5th Colorado transfer this year

October 4, 2024-

This week the Trust completed the transfer of our 183-acre Cross Mountain project in Colorado’s Fossil Ridge Wilderness to public ownership. The transfer comes on the heels of two other successful projects in Gunnison National Forest this year: the 10-acre Straeder Lode just outside the Raggeds Wilderness, and 10-acre Copper Glance Lode in the Maroon Bells-Snowmass Wilderness.

This most recent transfer will permanently protect the property, which straddles the wilderness boundary and has nearby road access leaving it vulnerable to development and uses incompatible with the surrounding wilderness.

“This acquisition protects wild and undeveloped viewsheds and consolidates private ownership within National Forest System lands, eliminating the need for special use authorizations. Acquisition of these parcels will help strengthen and preserve Congressionally Designated Wilderness Areas.”

– Dayle Funka, Gunnison District Ranger

The Trust’s process for protecting wild places like Cross Mountain has two phases: first we purchase the property from the private landowner, then we hold the property until it can transfer to public ownership. We typically aim to be acquiring and transferring roughly the same total value of projects each year to keep our Wilderness Opportunity Fund (WOF), which funds the majority of our acquisitions, at a healthy level.

Striking this balance isn’t always possible though. As our work gains momentum in new areas and sometimes decades-long relationships with landowners and partners grow, more and more acquisition opportunities are becoming available. This is, of course, something to celebrate. But each project moves at its own pace, with the time between the purchase and transfer of a property typically taking 2-4 years. In some regions we’ve seen this timeline stretching longer and longer as our agency partners do their best with limited capacity. When this happens, these factors can converge resulting in a backlog of transfers, meaning more of our WOF is tied up in projects than is available to take advantage of new conservation opportunities as they arise.

There are two meaningful solutions to this challenge: First, our lands staff and partners have been hard at work this year to clear this backlog of transfers, both to see projects completed and successfully protected, and to make more Wilderness Opportunity Funds available for new acquisitions. Cross Mountain is the fifth such project in Colorado transferred this year, marking significant progress toward this goal. Thanks to it, we already we have another five Colorado projects in development in the Holy Cross, Uncompahgre, and Weminuche Wilderness Areas and Red Cloud Wilderness Study Area.

The second way we are working to address this challenge is growing our Wilderness Opportunity Fund. You can join us in supporting the WOF with a revolving donation that will be reinvested in new acquisitions over and over, deepening the impact of your gift. Revolving funds can be named in honor or memory of an individual or foundation, and can be included in estate planning. Low or no interest loans can also be made to the WOF to acquire a specific property, multiple projects in a specific region or state, or as needed across our entire lands portfolio. Learn more about joining our Wilderness Opportunity Fund or contact brad@wildernesslandtrust.org.

 

Get more wilderness news delivered to your inbox!

By submitting this form, you are consenting to receive marketing emails from: Wilderness Land Trust. You can revoke your consent to receive emails at any time by using the SafeUnsubscribe® link, found at the bottom of every email. Emails are serviced by Constant Contact

Public access protected as Collegiate Peaks Wilderness Grows

September 19, 2024-

This week another gap in Colorado’s Collegiate Peaks Wilderness was mended as The Wilderness Land Trust transferred the 19-acre Panama Principal Lode to be added to the wilderness area.

With the transfer completed, the threat of development has been removed from the property, and the wilderness area has been made more whole. The Collegiate Peaks Wilderness is located between Leadville, Aspen, and Crested Butte, and is a prime example of sensitive alpine habitat. With eight 14,000’+ peaks within it, it has the highest average elevation of any designated wilderness in the lower 48 states and includes 40 miles of the Continental Divide. Dwarfed krummholz trees dot the landscape, growing in twisted shapes, sheltered from the wind by surrounding rocks, showing how extreme the environment is within this high alpine terrain. Only the hardiest animals make this landscape their home. In fact, in 2009 a male wolverine was spotted in the Collegiate Peaks, the first confirmed sighting in the state since 1919.

M56, the young wolverine radio collared in Grand Teton National Park before making his way south to the Collegiate Peaks.

The 19-acre Panama Principal Lode property adjoins and builds off the success of two other Trust projects: the Grandview Lode which was added to the wilderness in 2019, and Spotted Tail Lode which is awaiting transfer. While they are all relatively small properties, their cumulative impact grows as we eliminate more and more inholdings throughout the Collegiate Peaks and nearby wilderness areas. Protection of the Panama Principal Lode also benefits recreation in this popular area, with public access now ensured on the Green Mountain Trail, which runs through the property. The property is also within the viewshed of the scenic Hwy 82 as it climbs to Independence Pass.

This project would not be possible without the donors who generously supported it, the volunteers who helped to restore the property to its wilderness character, and our partners at the Independence Pass Foundation and U.S. Forest Service.

“The Independence Pass Foundation is beyond thrilled that the beautiful Panama and Principal claims have become part of the Collegiate Peaks Wilderness, where they can be preserved and protected and enjoyed by the public for all time. HUGE thanks to The Wilderness Land Trust and the US Forest Service for making this possible, and to the dozens of volunteers who over four months hauled several tons of dilapidated structures and debris from the properties to make them ‘wilderness ready’ for transfer. What a wonderful way to celebrate the 60th anniversary of the Wilderness Act!”

– Karin Teague, Executive Director Independence Pass Foundation

This is the 14th property in the Collegiate Peaks Wilderness that the Trust has protected.

 

Get more wilderness news delivered to your inbox!

By submitting this form, you are consenting to receive marketing emails from: Wilderness Land Trust. You can revoke your consent to receive emails at any time by using the SafeUnsubscribe® link, found at the bottom of every email. Emails are serviced by Constant Contact

Viewsheds protected in Colorado’s Raggeds Wilderness

August 23, 2024-

The Trust recently transferred a small property just outside Colorado’s Raggeds Wilderness to public ownership to be added to the National Forest.Straeder Lode is just over 10 acres of steep, rugged mountainside on the slopes above Baxter Basin. A popular hiking route from Crested Butte, Baxter Basin and Daisy Pass offer incredible views of flowering alpine meadows, waterfalls, and jagged ridgelines.

The Trust first purchased Straeder Lode in December 2021, and since then has been working to transfer it to Gunnison National Forest. Now that it has been transferred, it can be enjoyed by future generations of recreationists.

Properties like Straeder Lode are a great example of the impact of viewsheds on our wilderness experiences. If you were to close your eyes and imagine one of your favorite places in the wilderness, the picture you conjure would likely include a sweeping view. The area that can be seen from any particular point is known as its viewshed. And when we go to the wilderness for solitude and inspiration, our experience is shaped by more than just the ground we step foot on, the trail corridors and campsites. It is shaped by all we see from those places. So if you were to imagine that from your favorite place in the wilderness your view now included a busy road, or a private resort with helicopters coming and going, or mining equipment and heavy machinery moving the mountainside, you would likely find your experience altered. No longer would you have the same sense of quiet, of solitude in the vastness, and of remaining a visitor in the landscape.

So for a property like Straeder Lode, sitting within the viewshed of popular trails like Baxter Basin and Daisy Pass, the threat of privately owned properties within the wilderness landscape isn’t that public access would be cut off on the trails, it’s that the experience of those traversing those trails would be altered and diminished.

 

Get more wilderness news delivered to your inbox!

By submitting this form, you are consenting to receive marketing emails from: Wilderness Land Trust. You can revoke your consent to receive emails at any time by using the SafeUnsubscribe® link, found at the bottom of every email. Emails are serviced by Constant Contact

Holy Cross wilderness expands with new transfer in Colorado

June 14, 2024-

The Wilderness Land Trust recently transferred our 22nd property in Colorado’s Holy Cross Wilderness to public ownership.

Just down the ridgeline from Homestake Peak, the 10-acre Northern Lode property straddles the Continental Divide in an area once active with mines. It sits just above the the West Tennessee Lakes basin and is a short scramble from the popular trail accessing the lakes.

Throughout the property a series of scree slopes and grassy alpine meadows are home to high alpine inhabitants like the American pika. The potato-sized pika is found in the high country throughout the rockies, typically above 8,000 ft. You may have heard their loud squeaking “EEEP” calls or seen them dashing through the talus with mouth full of grasses. In order to make it through the harsh alpine winter without hibernating, the pika will spend all summer stockpiling grass under rocks to dry, creating ‘haypiles’. It’s not uncommon for a single pika to make 25 foraging trips an hour between the talus and meadows through the summer!

The same adaptations that make pika well suited for life in high alpine also make them vulnerable to the climate change. Scientists (including many citizen science programs like the the Colorado Pika Project who rely on volunteers to collect data) are studying how the range of pika habitat is changing, in order to better understand the impacts of climate change. Protecting available habitat, like the Northern Lode property, is important to ensuring these resilient, and adorable, critters continue to thrive.

With five more properties currently held by the Trust awaiting transfer in the Holy Cross Wilderness, our impact there will only continue to grow.

 

 

Get more wilderness news delivered to your inbox!

By submitting this form, you are consenting to receive marketing emails from: Wilderness Land Trust. You can revoke your consent to receive emails at any time by using the SafeUnsubscribe® link, found at the bottom of every email. Emails are serviced by Constant Contact

Maroon Bells-Snowmass Wilderness grows near Crested Butte!

March 22, 2024-

Just 8 miles northeast of the town of Crested Butte, the Queen Basin rises to meet the ridgelines and summit of White Rock Mountain. The basin has a rich mining history, and remnants can still be found scattered throughout it. In 2022 the Trust acquired the 10-acre Copper Glance Lode property, the last private inholding remaining in the basin. Recently we transferred it to public ownership to be added to the Maroon Bells-Snowmass Wilderness.

Throughout much of Colorado’s high country, including deep in what today is designated wilderness, traces of mining history can be found, from mine shafts still framed in timbers to bits of rusted machinery and bean cans. The majority of these silver, gold, and copper mines were small-scale, and the landscapes around them have recovered quickly, wiping away most traces of their camps and wagon trails. These small operations were certainly much different than the kinds of mega-mines we see today, removing entire mountain tops and reshaping vast landscapes to access ore. But they still serve as a reminder of what could have been. Had the boom not turned to bust so quickly, or had the lasting protections of designated wilderness not been established 60 years ago, the basins and ridges of Colorado’s high country might have looked much different today, including those surrounding the Copper Glance Lode property.

Data from the Resilient Landscapes Mapping Tool

Our thinking on what these landscapes provide has also evolved. No longer are they valued primarily for the profit lying beneath their surface, but for their beauty, their recreational opportunities, and the role their ecosystems play in sustaining life. The 10-acre Copper Glance Lode property rates high for climate resilience, habitat connectivity, and landscape diversity, which means that not only does it play an important role in maintaining biodiversity and clean air and water today, but it will continue to as the climate changes.

Get more wilderness news delivered to your inbox!

By submitting this form, you are consenting to receive marketing emails from: Wilderness Land Trust. You can revoke your consent to receive emails at any time by using the SafeUnsubscribe® link, found at the bottom of every email. Emails are serviced by Constant Contact

650-acre Snowmass Falls Ranch protected in landmark conservation deal

February 9, 2024-

The Wilderness Land Trust is partnering with Pitkin County in a landmark conservation deal to protect the 650-acre Snowmass Falls Ranch just outside of Snowmass Village conserving two miles of valley floor filled with aspen meadows, beaver ponds, trout streams, and public trails.

Located at the foot of the Elk Range, the majority of the property lies within the boundaries of the Maroon Bells-Snowmass Wilderness. The ranch is home to diverse wilderness values: open meadows, aspen groves, spruce forest, wetlands, and riparian shrublands create a mosaic of habitat types that support a wide range of flora and fauna. It provides summer range for elk, bear, moose, mule deer, and mountain lion and hosts an active beaver complex and many bird species. A popular public trail runs through the ranch, serving as an important access point for hikers to the wilderness area. In addition to its ecological and recreation value, the ranch also holds the most senior water rights to Snowmass Creek, a significant source of water for the valley below.

This week Pitkin County purchased the property for $34 M using Open Space Program funds. The ultimate goal is to transfer the majority of the property to public ownership as National Forest to be added to the Maroon-Bells Snowmass Wilderness. This will also allow Pitkin County to recoup most of the purchase price to reinvest in other conservation and community projects. In the interest of future management and stewardship, it is possible that a small portion including existing cabins will end up in private ownership, ideally with a conservation easement. As a project partner, the Trust’s primary roles are to help determine these boundaries with the goal of maximizing the portion to become Wilderness, and to help secure LWCF funding for the ultimate transfer to public ownership.

Within the high-end real estate market of Aspen and surrounding Pitkin County communities, properties of this size are rare and highly sought after. Currently the property is largely undeveloped, with a small cluster of primitive cabins and a public trailhead on its east side, leaving the majority of it intact and connected habitat. This conservation project is only possible today because of the caring stewardship of the property by the private owners over the last 80 years—they are a wonderful example of how conservation values can be protected under private ownership. But the likelihood of another conservation-minded buyer stepping forward when the property was listed for sale was slim, and if not protected it could have been subdivided into up to six lots and developed.

Both The Wilderness Land Trust and Pitkin County have been pursuing a conservation solution for the property for many years, and the once in a generation opportunity to protect it has finally come to fruition.

Last threat of development removed from the sacred Blanca Peak

January 26, 2024-

The Wilderness Land Trust recently accepted a donation of 45 acres on the slopes of Blanca Peak, removing the last private property from the peak.

Blanca Peak stands at over 14,300 feet just outside of the Sangre de Cristo Wilderness in southern Colorado. But the peak is also known by another name, one that predates the Spanish descriptor of its near-vertical white slopes by centuries.

For the Dinè, or Navajo, the peak is Sisnaajiní. It is one of the four corners marking the boundary of the Dinetah, the traditional Dinè homeland, along with three other sacred mountains— Dibé Nitsaa in the north (Hesperus Mountain in the La Plata Mountain range of Colorado), Doko’o’osliid in the west (Humphrey Peak in the San Francisco Peaks of Northern Arizona), and Tsoodzil in the south (Mt. Taylor Peak, west of Albuquerque, New Mexico).

More than just a location marker, Sisnaajiní is known as an internal compass, orienting one’s mind and physical presence on earth. Like the sun rising in the east, Sisnaajiní represents thought, the place where each day, and each action, begins. It was a gift from the Holy People to the Dinè: “When the Holy People had assembled the things with which to dress the East mountain, they traveled by way of a sunbeam and rainbow beam to decorate Sisnaajiní. The Holy People dressed Sisnaajiní with a perfect white shell for positive thoughts and thinking. Then the Holy People ran a bolt of lighting through a sacred mountain to fasten the East mountain to our Mother Earth.” (Navajopeople.org)

Beginning in the 1890s the slopes of Blanca Peak were mined for silver and gold, the mining claims eventually leading to a number of private inholdings surrounded by National Forest, some with a road leading to them. When the Sangre de Cristo Wilderness was designated in 1993, a strip of land along the Huerfano River where the access road runs, was excluded from the wilderness area, cutting it in two.

While hiking into the nearby Lily Lake for a fishing trip in the early 2000s, David Carrick of Boulder, CO fell in love with the area, and after discovering how many private properties were still spread throughout it, he began buying them. Inspired by his love for public lands, David had a company helping to facilitate land transfers, and through one was able to transfer all but six of the private properties on Blanca Peak to public ownership. With a road leading to them, the remaining properties had a high risk of development, and David was approached with interest to buy them and develop them with cabins. But David, and his wife Pamela, chose a different path. Instead they donated the remaining six Blanca Peak properties to The Wilderness Land Trust. “I wasn’t familiar with the Trust previously, but as I started looking into them and understanding how they work, we felt confident that if we handed the properties over to them, they would be able to hold them until they could become public lands, which is what we wanted to see,” says David.

Thanks to the generosity of David and Pamela, and their commitment to seeing the landscape around Blanca Peak unified as public lands, the Trust has now begun the work of transferring the properties to the National Forest. With it no longer providing access to the private properties, the hope is that the road running along the Huerfano River can be converted to a trail, and someday the fracture through the wilderness area can be closed. With the last private properties removed, this sacred mountain is protected, ensuring it is open for future generations of Dinè for cultural and spiritual practices, as well as future generations of mountaineers inspired by its challenging climb.

 

Get more wilderness news in your inbox!

Sign up