Dear friends,
Wilderness (with a capitol ‘w’) proposals have been brought
to our attention during the past few weeks here in the Valley. I hope you are educating yourselves and
understand the opportunity that is present for us to make an incredible impact
on our environment, our culture and our selves by encouraging Congress to pass
the Hidden Gems Wilderness bill.
We are defined by our landscapes – it’s our clean water,
clean air, recreation opportunities, our wildlife, our mountains, and our
rivers who make us who we are - we are
all part of our ecological and land
community. As members of the land
community we are charged with being stewards of it and protecting it from
future degradation. People in our valley appreciate having public land to play
in more than most people in the country.
Hikers, bikers, para gliders, skiers (alpine, Nordic, backcountry,
etc.), river runners, fishermen, hunters, snowmobilers, dirt bikers, ATV
drivers, horseback riders, and the list goes on. I would venture to guess that all these
people find joy in beautiful scenery, enjoy viewing wildlife, appreciate clean
water and rivers, and find peace in quiet backcountry settings.
With this said, we are loving our public lands to
death. It is unintentional and not even
recognized by most. With increased high
impact recreational uses of our public lands we are tearing them up quickly.
Our passions and our culture include being out, climbing mountains, exploring
rivers, riding horses, traveling fast through wild places on wheels of
bicycles, motor bikes, and other ATVs, skiing in the most remote places, and
generally being adventurous people. We
all need to step back for a moment and look at what we’re really doing. How big
or small are our impacts on the landscape?
As we visit areas that are species rich, valuable habitat,
and watersheds for our drinking water, we should be considering the amount of
impacts our recreational pursuits are making on the land. We are unintentionally depleting our culture
as we continually deplete our landscape of its ecological integrity. We must protect our land as Wilderness as a
mechanism to protect our culture, health and integrity.
The Hidden Gems campaign is pushing to protect lower elevation
lands that have been thoroughly inventoried and determined to be of Wilderness
quality. In this day and age of
development, road building, oil and gas exploration and production, and ATV use
it is difficult to find public lands that hold wilderness qualities that would
ever allow them to be considered in a Wilderness proposal. The Hidden Gems lands have been deemed
valuable for their habitat, species richness, wilderness character, water
quality, air quality, and general ecological integrity. They are places we have not completely loved
to death, yet. These lands still have a
chance to remain wild forever. Without
Wilderness protection, they are not protected from being completely depleted of
their wild character.
Please take the time to educate yourself on Wilderness
policy, public lands designation, and appropriate travel in all the different
types of areas. Then, I encourage you to look carefully at the Hidden Gems maps
and identify any specific trails you have issue with and talk about them specifically
mile by mile with the Hidden Gems campaign staff or volunteers. There is room
in this proposal to make adjustments for the good of our community. This Roaring Fork
Valley
Sarah R. Johnson
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