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Time to get real about Browns Canyon

This letter has not been edited

Paul Vertrees, Cañon City

Published September 5, 2008 at 6 p.m.

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OHV USERS NEED TO GET REAL ABOUT BROWNS CANYON

After attending a public meeting in Buena Vista recently, I walked away from it shaking my head. Sen. Ken Salazar, who has introduced legislation to federally designate the Browns Canyon Wilderness in Chaffee County, held the meeting. Over 100 people packed the meeting room. Since there was an OHV (off-road vehicle) rally in Leadville around the same time, the opposition to Browns Canyon had a few more voices. It’s too bad that with all the potential for good input and productive compromise, the motorized crowd can’t seem to get it right. I heard complaints that “we have too much wilderness now, so why do we need more?” I heard demands that the government re-open all closed roads, so they can be accessed by OHVs, regardless of the age or condition of the roads. I heard comments like, “we didn’t have all this wilderness 50 years ago, so why do we need it now?” The opposition still makes a habit of spreading misinformation about the proposal to mislead citizens and elected officials.

It’s time to get real about Browns Canyon. We can’t treat the Colorado backcountry now like we did 50 years ago. Between 1990 and 2000, Colorado’s population grew a staggering 30.6%. During that same time period, Chaffee and surrounding counties outpaced the state growth rate, showing an increase of 50%. What’s even more alarming is that in recent years the number of OHVs has increase dramatically. According to a recent report from the Izaak Walton League of America, the most recent Forest Service national survey found that the number of off-highway vehicle participants increased from 36 million to 51 million in the four- year period ending in 2004. We simply cannot allow our booming population and their toys to dictate how much wild land becomes wilderness. We should remind ourselves that we are not “users” of the backcountry, but the stewards of it. Please support Browns Canyon Wilderness, now and for our future. It isn’t 1958, and we can’t afford to lose a unique piece of low-elevation wilderness like Browns Canyon.

Comments

  • September 7, 2008

    2:15 p.m.

    Suggest removal

    AngelontheSidelines writes:

    Wilderness designation applies almost exclusively to rock and ice tundra above treeline in Colorado. Browns Canyon can slightly change this ratio.

    There are thousands of miles of trails for OHV users, how elitist is it to keep motorheads out of a small area?

    How elite is OHV ownership? Most families cannot afford the thousands of dollars for the machines, the trailers, and trucks to even begin the "sport".