County will look into Strand Hill conflict

Focus is on recent resurvey, special use permits

In a relatively unusual move, Gunnison County is jumping into the fray between Cold Spring Ranch and the U.S. Forest Service. That dispute is impacting the traditional access to the Strand Hill trail from Brush Creek Road.

The Veltri family has owned Cold Spring Ranch for more than seven decades. The Forest Service recently changed the way it charges the ranch for grazing cattle on federal land, leading to a potentially “ruinous” fee hike, according to ranch owner Michele Veltri.
The Forest Service is also contending that based on a modern survey, land boundaries aren’t where they were once thought to be and that is making a significant impact on Cold Spring Ranch.
At a regular meeting on Tuesday, June 14, the Gunnison Board of County Commissioners voted unanimously to allow county attorney David Baumgarten to embark on a fact-finding mission, at the Veltri’s request, to better understand the details of the dispute.
Although there has been some confusion about the location of the boundary between the ranch and public land since the late 1980s, Baumgarten told the commissioners that a recent “resurvey” of the area has led to the boundary making even less sense.
He said the latest survey didn’t quite match the boundary line established by an earlier survey. Cold Spring Ranch, which straddles Brush Creek Road south of Crested Butte, now owns more property on Strand Hill according to the resurvey. That is where there are a number of popular mountain bike trails, “and there is a potential conflict there.”
But the ranch doesn’t own “a piece of land on that left-hand side [of the road], behind where the old Veltri house was, where the Veltri’s put an improved calving area, with structures built on it to help with the calving process,” Baumgarten said.
In a September 2008 letter to the editor published in the Crested Butte News, Veltri wrote, “After the resurvey, the [Forest Service] reversed itself, claiming it owned the land previously assumed to be ours for more than a hundred years.”
Veltri also pointed out that the ranch would not be reimbursed for “decades of fees charged for land parcels finally conceded to have always belonged rightfully to Cold Spring Ranch.”
Another point of contention between the Veltris and the Forest Service is two special use permits that have historically been granted to the ranch for cattle grazing on what is public land. Baumgarten said there is now some question as to whether those permits will be reissued.
“If they are renewed, what will be the cost of the special use permits?” he asked.
And if the permits are reissued without a “ruinous” fee increase, as Veltri has suggested, the ranch would still see a multiplier effect based on the number of cows that graze on the land.
According to Baumgarten, the two special use permits cover “about 50 or 60 acres.”
In order to find out specific details and get the story of the dispute from the Forest Service, as well as the Veltris, the commissioners directed Baumgarten to start fact-finding, “provided that Veltris are continually informed of what is going on and continue to ask for our assistance,” said commissioner Jim Starr.
“It’s been an issue that hasn’t only been important to the Veltris, but its also important to the community, at least to those who recreate in that area on their bicycles,” he said. “Although we usually loathe getting the county involved in personal situations, this seems to be one that warrants our involvement to the extent that David [Baumgarten] deems appropriate.”
Until the issues with the Forest Service popped up late last year, the Veltris have always allowed mountain bikers and other trail users to access the Strand Hill trails on a road that crosses their property.
But in order to maintain pressure on the Forest Service to return to their previous policies concerning his ranch, Veltri has posted a sign at the road, which is gated, saying that “with great reluctance,” he has closed the road to the public.
The commissioners get their authority to look into the matter from the Ranchland Initiative, an effort by the county to conserve ranch land and ensure that it continues to produce a product, such as cattle.
There are three parts to the Initiative’s mission: education; establishing a process for conservation; and offering the county’s support in “emerging ranching issues,” which is the basis for the county’s involvement in the Veltri’s situation.
Commissioner Hap Channell said, “At this point, we’re only talking about fact-finding. I don’t personally see that as being an insertion of a foreign object into something we have no business being in.”
Baumgarten said he would “open up a conversation with the Forest Service and gather some information and probe a little further into the Veltri’s information,” and report back to the commission when some facts have been established.