The Crested Butte News Serving the Gunnison Valley since 1999
Who said life is always fair? It probably is most times, but often, it just isn’t. And when it’s not, you can roll over and accept it or try to change the unfairness. Our community is facing such a choice.
As we approach our busy summer tourism season that draws people from all over the country and the world to the nearby backcountry, it just doesn’t seem fair that the world’s richest man has slashed and burned the jobs of people that spend their summers helping to protect our backyard. Elon’s indiscriminate chainsaw touch has real impacts for us. He and Donald have put our community in a position where we must decide whether to address the issue over nationally-owned public lands ourselves and mitigate some of the potential ramifications that come with tourism, or we let it start to fall apart. That decision of course isn’t fair and an unresolved, sometimes emotional, community discussion is currently taking place over that dilemma.
Gunnison National Forest recreation staff officer Matt Quinn along with CBMBA’s Dave Ochs and Tim Kugler of Gunnison Trails made a request of the Gunnison County MetRec board last week to fund another four people to actively maintain and monitor our nearby backcountry. Those people would help clear trails, help clean backcountry bathrooms, make sure fires were not simmering in abandoned campsites after people left. They would answer questions from people unfamiliar with our backcountry practices and basically protect our public lands. They would be the active stewards walking our backyard. Four people, some of them with the experience gained from having that job before being fired by Elon, would cost the community $60,000 for 14 weeks. Bargain!
MetRec board members were supportive of the idea and indicated they would participate in the contribution. They balked however at being the primary funder and wanted a more collaborative community effort. Board members pointed to the Gunnison County’s STOR committee — Sustainable Tourism and Outdoor Recreation — as the more appropriate organization to lead the funding initiative. Just based on the name… sustainable tourism—check; outdoor recreation—check…it seemed reasonable that this local group of stakeholders would be a logical body to lead the initiative funding effort.
But Gunnison County commissioners on Tuesday expressed some concerns over the quickly developing proposal and while they haven’t thrown a stick in the spokes, they certainly pumped the brakes. They legitimately questioned whether the local community should be the ones handling and paying for the issues on federal lands. They worried that if it’s done once, it will be expected in perpetuity. There was concern that given the uncertainty of the Trump administration the ultimate goal from D.C. might be to have the federal government divest itself of our treasured public lands. There was the idea to make sure that people understood the upshot of Trump’s election on public lands enjoyed by both conservatives and liberals. If people had to walk through poop at the trailhead consider it as a lesson. A longer-term concern was that if things like Medicaid, SNAP benefits and Social Security were cut as seemed to be an evolving possibility, the county might need to use its funds to literally feed people.
In my mind, we can overthink every potential possibility and freeze ourselves out of taking any action. Or we can face what is in front of us this moment and do what needs to be done to help our immediate future. A request for $60K from our local elected bodies and some private groups, the county, the municipalities, MetRec, is not a major ask for one year. They all have super solid reserve funds and reserves are meant to be used in emergencies. The situation in front of us could be considered an unexpected emergency.
Taking care of our millions of acres of public lands is crucial. I would say these public lands, our literal backyard, is one of the primary foundations of the entire community — both from an economic and mental health perspective. To consciously let nearby public lands fall into disrepair will have the consequence of us not wanting to be out there, and visitors not wanting to return. That would result in us going a bit crazy and the economy losing a chunk of its base.
While Elon and Donald may want to chainsaw the crap out of public lands, we need to step up and do what we can to protect our backyard. Sure, go out and be part of Saturday’s Hands Off protest in Gunnison. But also choose tangible action over rolling over when the opportunity presents itself. When we have the chance to come together as a community and do what we normally do — stand up and put our money where our mouth is— do it. We as a community can hire these friends and neighbors to do what they were trained to do — protect our backyard. We’ve done it for years through groups like the CB Conservation Corps.
As was emphasized at the MetRec meeting, it should be a group effort and quick timing matters. The county commissioners and STOR should face today’s crisis and, with a relatively small fee, figure out how best to protect what it is we love. Hire the four extra people. Maybe ask TAPP to erect signs at the trailheads stating clearly what it would be like if the local community didn’t step up. Perhaps enough people, including my MAGA friends and the MAGA tourists, will understand the damage caused by trying to trim government with a dull machete instead of a sharp scalpel. Perhaps our congressional representative Jeff Hurd will call for a more intelligent approach to efficiency and understand that some government jobs actually matter to us as citizens.
Who knows? There is no doubt a shift happening in the country and the world. How we handle the shift will help define our community.
The commissioners and STOR are faced with hard decisions. They need to thoughtfully prioritize challenges. When the poop hits the fan — and there is no doubt that Donald and Elon are throwing poop into the fan that will stick to us this summer if we aren’t diligent— it is up to active communities like ours to figure out how best to deal with cleaning it up. It’s not a pleasant job and no one is happy to be in this position but it’s the right thing to do.
Who said life was always fair?
—Mark Reaman
