The Wild Connections Conservation Plan is a dynamic concept based on the principles of conservation biology. Key components include large roadless cores, connecting habitat linkages and rewilding by providing for wide-ranging carnivores. Various aspects of Wild Connections are mapped; natural qualities are described; and proposed management will protect the wildlands network, biodiversity and wilderness characteristics.
Strategies to put the Wild Connections Conservation Plan into practical action include Wilderness designation, connecting to other wildlands networks and ensuring the the Pike-San Isabel Forest plan revision incorporates major recommendations.
Browns Canyon, photo by Kurt Kunkle
Mountain lion, photo by Dave Jones
The Wild Connections management proposal is defined in the Wild Connections Conservation Plan. A map of the management proposal can be seen at Wild Connections Map.
Wild Connections was originally born out of the citizen inventory of 100 roadless areas that are shown on the Roadless Areas map. These roadless areas are being reviewed with the new Colorado Roadless Areas inventory.
The Southern Rockies Wildlands Network Vision and The Spine of the Continent show how wildlands networks can be linked across the Rockies and the continent.
The Central Colorado Wilderness Coalition has proposed Congressional designation of the Wild Ten areas in central Colorado. Such designation would implement part of Wild Connections by creating protected areas in El Paso, Teller, Fremont, Park. Chaffee and Lake counties.
The Colorado Wilderness Network’s Colorado Canyon Country Wilderness Proposal for BLM and USFS lands includes s million acres of proposed Wilderness across the state, including six areas along the Arkansas River.
Your donations help Wild Connections review roadless area inventories and update the WCCP.
Colorado Roadless Area Rule adds 107,300 acres to Pike-San Isabel inventory
Forest Service Meetings Denver, May 17 (all forests) Pueblo, May 19 (PSI) Comment deadline: July 14
Did you know that there are 107,300 more roadless acres in the Pike-San Isabel National Forest( PSI)? Well, they’re not new; they’ve been there all the time, of course. Wild Connections mappers knew about them as long ago as 1995, but until now, they were not recognized by the Forest Service.
This increase of nearly 16% beyond the former 2001 PSI Inventoried Roadless Areas (IRAs) is included in the land base totaling 774,600 acres that will be managed under the revised Colorado rule. The official inventory is now called Colorado Roadless Areas(CRAs).
The proposed Rule, released for public comment on April 15, is part of the state-specific rule making that Colorado decided to adopt. Keep in mind that the inventory is actually what is on the ground, and that the Rule will be applied to those acres.
CRA Inventory Prior to this rule making, the Forest Service looked at their roadless areas across the state again. Wild Connections’ sent inventory data collected by our 150 volunteer mappers to the Pike San Isabel, and it appears that Ranger Districts took this information very seriously as they revised their official inventory. Some new boundaries are amazingly congruent with mapper data. This is a signal achievement, a fitting end to the maper's hot days on nasty roads.
Other forests did not fare as well, only the San Juan NF added additional acres, and the GMUG lost about 13%. These new figures reflect the consequences of forest management over the years, particularly for timber harvest and energy exploration which usually involve making new roads.
2011 Rule The proposed Rule for Colorado, created though a long public process involving federal and state agencies and citizens, is not as protective as the 2001 Rule which is the norm for all states except Colorado and Idaho. The conservation community is looking in detail at the proposed rule, and Wild Connections will post an alert with recommendation for citizen comments. You can submit comments at the meetings listed above or by mail/email by July 14, 2011.
Resources ♦ Look at the map below and see how your favorite places are affected by boundary changes. Download the PDF version for an interactive map – open the left sidebar and click the layers icon in your Adobe Readerto turn layers on and off. ♦ Check out the Forest Service’s Colorado Roadless Rule web site by Googling usfs colorado roadless rule - the link is too long to put here. The Revised Draft Environmental Impact Statement and other documents, as well as map packets for all Colorado forests are here.
