Green Mountain Roadless Area 14,300 acres reclaimed as wildlands! Restoration volunteers heaved logs and rocks, pegged mat, scattered seed on 2.5 miles of old road and wet meadow
Wild Connections, volunteers and the Forest Service restored approximately 2.5 miles of old routes from the Pine Creek headwaters to Stony Pass. Volunteers blocked and seeded the whole route corridor. Illegal ATV-created tracks in the 5-acre wet meadow were ripped and seeded. A long abandoned mine shaft was filled in and a bat gate installed on another mine to protect both the bats and any future hikers' safety. At the former Stony Pass access, the gate is locked and the old road covered with logs and brush. During the work days, we heard elk bugling and we leave them to their mating rituals and "mud-bogging" in the remaining meadow wallows!
Thanks to the work day volunteers: Anne Akers-Lewis, Tod Bacigalupi, Misi Ballard, Rosemary Brinko, John Chapman, Alison Gallensky, Greg Hill, Jim Lockhart, Joel Marx, Warren May, Claude Neumann, Deb Overn, Scott Patterson, Lee Patton, Raghavendra Paturi, Mary Jo Piccin, Kristin Skoog, Vickie Smith, Jean Smith, George Ware and Sharon Wilbert.
Scott Dollus, Outdoor Recreation Planner for the South Platte Ranger District, coordinated the Forest Service site preparation including an archeological/biological survey, installation of a bat gate at an abandoned mine, extensive "cat" operations to rip the route bed and a crew of sawyers to fell trees and pile brush adjacent to the restoration corridor.
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Roadless Area Mapping Getting the up-to-date info
Twenty volunteers were in the field this summer checking the boundaries of some roadless areas on the Pike-San Isabel National Forest. The areas have important differences between the Forest Service's Colorado Roadless Areas (CRAs) and the boundaries that were inventoried a number of years ago by Wild Connections (WCRAs.) They have high conservation value and most are proposed for future Wilderness designation.
Areas on the Pike National Forest, the South Plate headwaters, include Boreas, Buffalo Peaks West, Burning Bear/Square Top, Farnum/Schoolmarm Mountain, Green Mountain, Jefferson, Pikes Peak West, Sheet Rock, Thirtynine Mile and Weston Peak.Areas on the San Isabel National Forest, the Arkansas River headwaters, include Elk Mountain-Collegiate/Frenchman Creek/Pine Creek, Starvations Creek/Antora Peak, Badito Cone/Dry Creek/Santana Butte, Cisneros Creek and Greenhorn Creek.See a map of these areas.
Mappers met on November 13th to debrief and make some preliminary recommendations for boundary adjustments. If you are interested in helping with further research, such as contacting Ranger Districts, or working on final boundary decisions, contact Jean Smith.
Great thanks to the dedicated crew of volunteers who are mapping the boundaries: Anne Akers-Lewis, Tod Bacigalupi, Misi Ballard, Rosemary Brinko, Bernie Gay, Stuart Halpern, Tom and Margaret Johnson, Jim Lockhart, Lisa Loebig, Keith Oliver, Deb Overn, Lee Patton, Raghavendra Paturi, Kristin Skoog, John and Carol Stansfield and Steve Valimaki.
Later we will use these data to recommend boundary adjustments and update the Wild Connections Conservation Plan.
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Wild Connections 2309 N. Logan Ave., Colorado Springs, CO 80907 info@wildconnections.org 719-686-5905
