Choose a wilderness experience, be rewarded with Mother Nature's pristine welcome
As a backcountry enthusiast, I want to make a few more comments in support of the Hidden Gems program.
Comments have been published as to the restrictions the Hidden Gems program would create for a small number of backcountry visitors. Let's take a look at what wilderness areas do offer. Many visitors choose to visit the pristine neighborhood of a wilderness area for a variety of activities.
Some of the most popular activities center on hunting, fishing, skiing, hiking, climbing, backpacking, photography, horseback access and a great place to meditate in the quiet. Oh! Did I mention the best chance to see and preserve vast selections of wildlife?
You can make your choice from a lifetime menu of wilderness offerings. Even after adding additional wilderness acreage, we still also have vast areas of national forest and BLM land that can be accessed by mechanical means.
Working in the summer as a volunteer wilderness ranger, we receive hundreds of positive comments by guests hiking in the areas we patrol.
During our last five-hour patrol on the Booth Falls trail, we counted 90 hikers. During this patrol, we interviewed 35 to 40 people.
You would think it was Christmas morning. They raved over their wilderness experience and expressed endless comments about the quiet beauty. Some of the visitors came from states and foreign countries with no wilderness areas or, say, 0.01 percent of land area designated as wilderness, like New Jersey.
One has to stop and think: visitors coming to Colorado and having such a great experience! You know they will come back. This can only benefit a resort economy. Public land is faced with unprecedented threats. With rapid development, ever increasing mechanical access, diminishing habitat and rapid population increase, we have to support and add more wilderness for future generations.
We're learning quickly that rare plants and endangered animal species require habitats that are relatively undisturbed. Wildlife needs contiguous migration routes, especially at mid-elevations. The Hidden Gems proposal secures scarce migration routes for wildlife.
Choose a wilderness experience, be rewarded with Mother Nature's pristine welcome, and give thanks to past generations who were so wise to give us this gift we use today. It's a natural treasure to revere and enlarge. Future generations will never stop thanking us.
Harald "Hemmie" Westbye
Vail
