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Preserve the wilderness

Dear Editor:

To all the intelligent, influential people of the Roaring Fork Valley, please use your money, influence and passion to support the Wilderness Workshop and a host of other organizations in getting the Hidden Gems Wilderness proposal before congress and adopted. In my 30 years with the Colorado Division of Wildlife I visited most of the proposed areas. They all have very high wildlife values. By providing excellent habitat for wildlife they provide us with clean air, clean water, and reservoirs of solitude with mature carbon eating trees.

A brief example of what roads will do to an area is close by. When I came to the valley in 1971 the Four Mile road basically ended in Four Mile park. With an old willy’s Jeep you could fight your way through the mud of Baylor Park and around to the headwaters of Thompson Creek. There were always several hunting camps at the end of Four Mile park and the hunting was good. The gas wells in Wolf Creek got drilled and the compressor stations came in 1973, along with surfaced roads. In two years the Four Mile park area was over run with hunters in sedans and two wheel drive pickups. The game left the country.



There are very few roadless areas left. They are not making any more of it. We need to preserve what is left. What we have set aside in wilderness already has given us back great wealth in clean air, pure water and a place to enjoy ourselves. We need to add what we can, while we can.

Enjoy each day.




John Seidel

Carbondale