Beautiful fall day in Hunter Canyon.
The true chill of winter has finally hit Western Colorado after a full fall in CEC’s West Slope field office. Since August 27th we’ve hosted a series of adventures into our big backyard, exploring many of our region’s Wilderness Study and Wilderness Proposal sites. The outings drew an array of savvy hikers, from ages 17 to 70, who got a chance to see the nooks and crannies of the Grand Valley and beyond.
The explorations were an intimate opportunity to learn more about the process of conservation on Bureau of Land Management (BLM) land. The passage of the Federal Land Policy Management Act (FLPMA) in 1975 directed BLM to identify Wilderness Study Areas (WSA), which encouraged involved community members to supplement the BLM’s efforts by mapping additional special places and identifying Citizen Wilderness Proposals (CWP). From there, conservation organizations (such as CEC) have pushed for permanent protections for these lands by having them legislatively designated as Wilderness Areas or National Conservation Areas (NCA). Today there remains a network of Colorado Canyon Country Wilderness Proposal Areas (CCCWP) that are being tracked for the possibility of conservation designation. During the West Slope Fall Hiking Series we visited a number of them and finished with a trek through our favorite local NCA.
