| Welcome to Wild Connections and the latest updates |
President signs Public Lands bill with
new Wilderness for Colorado
The Rocky Mountain National Park and Dominguez Canyons wilderness proposals, part of the Omnibus Public Lands bill, was passed by both houses of Congress and the President signed the legislation on March 30. .
Now some two million acres of wilderness, protected rivers and trails, as well as legal permanence to the National Landscape Conservation System, are in place across the nation.
In Colorado most of Rocky Mountain National Park is now officially Wilderness, and the Dominquez-Escalante National Conservation Area includes a large Wilderness area.
These represent years -- even decades -- of dedicated support from elected officials, local activists and citizens across the state. Achieving wilderness protection for these invaluable gems of Colorado is an incredible and lasting victory!
For more background information or photographs, please go to:
http://www.ourcolorado.org/what-we-do/wilderness/wilderness-area-proposals/cccwp/greater-dominguez.html
http://www.southernrockies.org/rocky/
Please thank the decision makers who made this possible. Colorado Environmental Coalition’s web page has more information and a letter template. http://ga6.org:80/campaign/omnibusthanks_033009/x6deig74r7w5jmwt?
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Reclaiming Wildways - Restoration Volunteers needed
Wild Connections’ first restoration project will reclaim critical habitat for two threatened or endangered species. The site is in a riparian area in the Trout Creek and Eagle Creek drainages on the Rampart Range. Teams will install permanent barriers, rehabilitate the closed ATV route surface and broadcast native grass seed, fertilizer, and mulch to revegetate sensitive riparian areas and to restore stream banks.
Wilderness Restoration Volunteers (WRV), Coalition for Upper South Platte and the U. S. Forest Service are our partners. Volunteers include students, employees of local businesses, conservation group members and interested individuals. We invite you to join up.
The first restoration Saturdays are scheduled for May 9, 16, and 30. Volunteer teams will be led by train crew leaders, and tools and lunch are provided. Join a team now or get more information at the Wild Connections Events page. Read more in Reclaiming Wildways, below right.
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| Trail restoration in Phantom Canyon, photo by WRV. |
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| Spring Brook trail restoration, photo by WRV |
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| Courtesy www.earthday.net/ |
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Earth Day 2009
Celebrate Earth Day with a guided hike in Browns Canyon on Sunday April 26. Go to Wilderness Hikes for more information.
Wild Connections will be at several area Earth Day events. Watch this page for details.
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| Reclaiming Wildways
Wild Connections first on-the-ground stewardship project, Reclaiming Wildways, is happening now! .
With the completion of the Wild Connections Conservation Plan, we are well positioned to expand our work to include restoration.
Why restoration?
Animals need to move safely across the landscape to satisfy their needs for forage and breeding. Restrictions to migration corridors negatively impact all levels of biodiversity, leaving habitation fragmentation and loss one of the leading threats to biodiversity and the decline of species worldwide. But, off highway vehicle (OHV) use has increased dramatically in recent years, resulting in unplanned roads that cross streams, cause erosion and loss of habitat and fragment roadless areas. The Forest Service Chief has identified unmanaged recreation as one of the top challenges to forest management.
...more
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| Wild Connections - What we do |
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| Winter in the back country - photo by Norm Mullen |
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| Wild Connections, a science-based advocacy organization, works to identify, protect and restore lands of the Upper Arkansas and South Platte watersheds to ensure the survival of native species and ecological richness. We focus on designing, implementing and defending the Wild Connections Conservation Plan - a vision for the future of this region that embodies the results of many years of roadless area mapping, citizen input and conservation science.
Conserving biodiversity requires networks of people protecting networks of wildlands. Our programs involve people from all walks of life in proactive strategies, connections with wildlands and practical advocacy. We invite you to join in this effort.
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| Wild Connections works in the mountain headwaters region of the South Platte and Arkansas Rivers. |
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| Get newsletters from Wild Connections |
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