The Crested Butte News Serving the Gunnison Valley since 1999
No more biking to Green Lake?
The Crested Butte Town Council agreed Monday to amend its letter of support for the Hidden Gems Wilderness proposal, to include 17,100 acres around Whetstone Mountain just south and west of Crested Butte. The idea came from High Country Citizens’ Alliance, but the Hidden Gems Campaign is ready to include the idea.
HCCA executive director Dan Morse told the council that the U.S. Forest Service had identified the area as a roadless area and in 2007 had considered it appropriate for wilderness designation. “This area defines what a wilderness should be,” he said, “and it is so close to town but away from the sights and sounds of towns and roads.”
Laura Yale, Gunnison County organizer of the Hidden Gems campaign, agreed with Morse that the land was appropriate for what they were trying to do. She said the Hidden Gems project wanted to have a complete plan, including the Whetstone area, in place by the end of the year. Hidden Gems is ultimately hoping to designate approximately 400,000 acres of “mid-elevation habitats” in the White River and Gunnison National Forests with a federal wilderness designation. The Whetstone land would encompass the peaks of Whetstone, Axtell and Carbon mountains.
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Morse acknowledged the wilderness designation would result in the elimination of all motorized activity such as motorcycles or snowmobiles along with a “handful of mountain biking trails. I’d say those trails have low usage,” he said. Morse admitted that a Crested Butte to Gunnison trail link was proposed to go through the area as well but rerouting that portion of the trail was still possible.
Mayor Alan Bernholtz said he had received about 15 emails on Monday voicing support for the idea.
Crested Butte Mountain Bike Association president John Chandler said certain trails would be off-limits to mechanized and mechanical uses like mountain bikes. The top of the Green Lake trail would be impacted; the so-called Don Cook trail would be eliminated to biking; and the Carbon Creek trail single track would be off-limits, along with the proposed trail linking Lily Lake to Splains Gulch.
Yale said her group had been working with various stakeholders like mountain bikers and would continue to do so.
Local mountain bike activist and Gunnison Trails founder Dave Wiens said the part of the Crested Butte-to-Gunnison trail slated for the Whetstone area was essentially the perfect connector. “It doesn’t have a lot of vertical,” he explained. “It is a beautiful stretch. Mountain bikers are for wilderness where it is appropriate and we all want to help protect the land. But we think you should look at other alternatives. I oppose this change to wilderness. I’ve heard it is tied to the mine but I also hear that technology is such that the mine won’t necessarily need the land in that area. I think you need more information on the issue.”
“We want to stay away from the mine aspects,” responded Bernholtz. “It is a roadless area and it is quiet and it appears to be a good place for wilderness.”
Morse said seeking other alternatives like a National Conservation Area designation would not be appropriate. “We aren’t looking for it to be a companion area,” said Morse. “It would seem unlikely to qualify for those types of designations.”
Chandler emphasized the need for more information. He referenced a letter to the town from former High Country Citizens’ Alliance director Gary Sprung urging them to not support the Whetstone land as wilderness. “We agree that we should protect the land as much as possible but we feel mountain bikers belong up there,” he said. “Dan [Morse] feels like it will impact the mine but he can’t guarantee it. If this goes through as wilderness, the bikers will be banned from there forever.”
Bernholtz said that a mine would never happen in the area. “It’s crazy to put a mine in a municipal watershed,” he said. “It’s insane. But when everyone talks about change up there, things will really change for the mountain bikers and the motorcyclists if that area is used for tailings. This is a difficult position for us up here. I don’t like seeing the conflict between the bikers and the hikers. We want to try to do the right thing.”
Maureen Hall of the Elk Mountain Hikers Club told the council her group agrees more often than not with the mountain biking community, but not in this case. “We have 220 members in our club and we would like to see it designated as wilderness,” she said. She also said that Sprung has argued in the past for opening up wilderness to mountain bikers, and her club couldn’t support such an idea.
Local resident Jeremy Rubingh told the council, “If it’s about protecting the land like we all say, then a wilderness designation is the best way.”
Former councilperson Jim Schmidt said he wasn’t aware until the meeting that the top of the Green Lake trail would be impacted. “Losing that is like losing a baby,” he said. “There is some great riding in that area and I would hate to see it cut off.”
Councilperson Dan Escalante agreed. “I have some apprehension with this,” he admitted. “I like getting on my bike and riding from town. Part of the culture of Crested Butte is biking and hiking and I’d like to see a compromise that could incorporate the two. I’m not ready to go with this yet.”
Councilperson Skip Berkshire said that “50 years from now, every square inch of wilderness will be treasured. But I am very disappointed in the process. I don’t like being caught between these user groups. I’d really like HCCA—the group driving this train—to find some collaborative alternative.”
Councilperson Margot Levy saw the immediate benefit of a wilderness designation. “They aren’t making any more wilderness,” she said. “I see it as an opportunity. We had a similar opportunity up Oh-Be-Joyful. I support protecting this as wilderness.”
Councilperson Leah Williams also chimed in. “I agree with Margot and it seems there are alternatives to work with the Crested Butte to Gunnison trail,” she said. “I love wilderness and would hate to pass up this opportunity.”
“It is a great opportunity,” added Bernholtz. “It’s a spot not being heavily used by motorcycles or bikers. In the bigger picture we are trying to protect the entire valley. I wish people would look at the bigger picture and not just their little piece. In the greater good, we have to look at the threats and throw everything we can at it. We have to use whatever we can to fight Goliath and this is a stone. I want my family to grow up in a safe, clean valley and this can give us one more stone to throw. I support making the amendment.”
Escalante said he heard what Bernholtz was saying, “but it sounds like a scare tactic and I think we should take some more time and get some more information. What’s the rush?”
Yale said the Hidden Gems project wanted a complete proposal finished by the end of the year. Morse said it was coming to the town so late in the game because they’d been meeting with various user groups and the Town Council agenda request fell where it could. He conveyed that he felt the timing was such that the council should take action on it immediately.
They did. Williams, Levy, Berkshire and Bernholtz voted to make the requested amendment. Escalante voted against it. Council members Billy Rankin and Reed Betz were not at the meeting. Neither was Mount Emmons Project Director of Community Relations Perry Anderson but he expressed his concerns with the action to town manager Susan Parker early Tuesday morning.
“We think a wilderness designation is a major consideration and would have major impacts on a variety of stakeholders and users. We don’t think it should be rushed into policy,” Anderson said in an interview Wednesday morning. “We don’t think adding this new area to the Hidden Gems proposal at the last hour seems very transparent. There was little opportunity for the public to even comment to the council and that concerns us and probably other users as well. We think the process should be more inclusive and move more deliberately. We’d certainly be willing to work with the Hidden Gems campaign to find some compromise.”
