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Good to be wild

May Selby
Chris Faison and WW board member Peter Looram lend their efforts with the barbecue.
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The Wilderness Workshop hosted its third annual picnic on the afternoon of Sunday, July 23, for members, guests and friends of the organization. Connie Harvey, one of the “Maroon Belles” who co-founded the Wilderness Workshop, hosted the event with her family on their Old Snowmass ranch.In 1967, Harvey, Dottie Fox and Joy Caudill founded the organization as a means of defending public lands from development and to help restore the wildness of a landscape affected by human activity. Their foresight and activism has helped secure more than a half- million acres of wilderness in Colorado.Today, the Wilderness Workshop continues to protect and preserve existing wilderness areas, advocate for expanding wilderness, defend roadless areas from development that would destroy their wilderness character, and safeguard the ecological integrity of all federal public lands in the White River National Forest and beyond.For the annual picnic last month, volunteers, board members and staff came together to celebrate local wildlands. All pitched in to ensure the potluck went smoothly as they enjoyed the expanse of the Harvey Ranch as well as activities including magic tricks from Doc Eason, and upbeat tunes from Heart of the Rockies, featuring local musicians Twirp Andersen, Cash Cashman, John Sommers and Randy Utterback.The Wilderness Workshop organizes several events during the summer, including guided hikes, and then during the winter they coordinate a series of monthly slide shows.Next on the Wilderness Workshop calendar will be a benefit at the Redstone Arts Center. On Saturday, Sept. 9, an all-day workshop with plein-air painter Henry Isaacs takes place, followed by a 6 p.m. Wilderness Workshop slide show at the Church at Redstone and a 7 p.m. opening reception for Isaacs’ show at the art center. For more information, contact Bev Goss at the Redstone Art Center, 963-3790.To learn more about Wilderness Workshop events, to join the organization or to volunteer, visit http://www.wildernessworkshop.org.