Tag Archive for: Colorado

Public access protected as the Weminuche Wilderness grows

September 19, 2025-

Earlier this summer the Trust transferred our 30-acre Needle Creek property, adding it to the Weminuche Wilderness. Last week we built off that momentum, transferring our 31-acre Great Western Lode properties to also be added to the Weminuche, once again growing Colorado’s largest wilderness area.

The Great Western Lode project is made up of three properties totaling 31 acres. Located about five miles north of the Needle Creek project, they protect fragile alpine tundra habitat. Like the Needle Creek project, the addition of Great Western Lode to the wilderness area secures public access on a popular trail. The 9.3-mile Whitehead Trail runs through two of the project’s three properties, and connects the Continental Divide Trail to the Highland Mary Trail and Deer Park Trails, which are easily accessible from the town of Silverton, Colorado, a year-round recreation destination.

All but 6 acres of Great Western Lode will be added to designated wilderness, enjoying the highest level of protection available to public lands that can only be altered by an act of Congress, not executive orders or other administration directives. The remaining 6 acres, which extends outside of the established wilderness boundary, will be added to San Juan National Forest to be managed as wilderness.

With the transfer of Great Western Lode, the Trust has protected a total of 15 properties covering over 265 acres in the Weminuche Wilderness.

Durango Telegraph: Win for the Weminuche

The Durango Telegraph celebrates the Trust’s addition of the 30 acre Needle Creek Property to the Weminuche Wilderness.

July 7, 2025

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Denver Gazette: Colorado’s Weminuche Wilderness gains acres of public lands

The Denver Gazette celebrate the Trust’s addition of the 30 acre Needle Creek Property to the Weminuche Wilderness.

July 1, 2025

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Public access protected as the Weminuche Wilderness grows

June 25, 2025-

Earlier this year we shared the news that we had acquired a 30-acre private inholding in the Weminuche Wilderness of southern Colorado. Now we are thrilled to announce that the property has been transferred to public ownership to be protected as designated wilderness.

Running through the property are both Needle Creek and the Needle Creek Trail, which is used by hikers and climbers to access the very popular Chicago Basin and its surrounding 14,000+ peaks. With flat, buildable stream-side sites, the property was previously 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 habitat 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.

At just shy of half a million acres, the Weminuche Wilderness is the largest in Colorado. Spanning the continental divide, with an average elevation of over 10,000 feet, its rugged terrain provides important alpine habitat. Needle Creek is the 15th property protected by the Trust in the wilderness area, and builds off the success of the nearby 7-acre Emerald Lake property that the Trust acquired in 2018 and transferred to be added to the wilderness area in 2023.

While the property is now protected as wilderness, we will continue working with the USFS to complete some remaining restoration work this summer, removing the remnants of a hunting camp left by a previous owner. We are encouraged to see transfers of property like Needle Creek still moving forward under the new administration, and are grateful for our wonderful partners at the San Juan National Forest and Region 2 USFS office for working so diligently to move this project through the transfer process.

Denver Gazette: US Forest Service acquires 19 acres of land in Collegiate Peaks Wilderness

The Denver Gazette celebrate the Trust’s addition of the 19 acre Panama Principle Lode to the Collegiate Peaks Wilderness.

October 21, 2024

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Gunnison Times – GMUG National Forest obtains 203 acres of wilderness

The Gunnison Times celebrate the Trust’s addition transfer of 203 acres in the Grand Mesa, Uncompahgre and Gunnison national forests.

October 16, 2024

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Denver Gazette – Forest Service celebrates 203 acres of private land-turned wilderness

The Denver Gazette celebrate the Trust’s addition transfer of 203 acres in the Grand Mesa, Uncompahgre and Gunnison national forests.

September 27, 2024

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Denver Gazette – A ‘holy grail’ of conservation

The Denver Gazette celebrates the Trust’s involvement in the landmark Snowmass Falls Ranch conservation project.

April 1, 2024

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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.

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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.