Your contributions help protect wildlands and wildlife linkages in our region.
Go to Events page for details
BLM Mapping Project
Rugged BLM land along the Arkansas River. Photo EcoFlight.
Wild Connections volunteers and interns will continue mapping wilderness areas in Bureau of Land Management (BLM) land in the Upper South Platte and Arkansas River basins. The goal is to identify prime BLM areas: roadless, relatively unimpacted, with significant plant and wildlife. These lands are essential to create a “wildlands” network, connecting and expanding habitat corridors for Colorado plants and animals.
In 2013, we completed major work in areas along the Arkansas Canyon between Salida and Canon City and as far south as Slide Mountain/Blanca Peak. There is a report in the November 2013 Landscapes.
Once all these lands are surveyed, Wild Connections will provide the BLM with Lands with Wilderness Characteristic (LWC) and Land Use Planning reports, prioritizing lands to be set aside for wilderness. You can participate and hike, bike, drive, or fly with our with GPS-powered iPads. Contact John Sztukowski atmapping@wildconnections.org to find out more or volunteer to collect data for wildlands inventories or apply for an internship.
The Next Wilderness
Browns Canyon with Mt. Princeton across the Arkansas Valley
Efforts to Preserve Browns Canyon as National Monument
Chaffee County, CO – Senator Michael Bennet became of a cosponsor of S.1794,The Browns Canyon National Monument and Wilderness Act of 2013, to protect Browns Canyon region as an invaluable economic and natural resource for Chaffee County and the state. The bill, originally introduced by Colorado U.S. Senator Mark Udall in December, will designate 22,000 acres along the Arkansas River as a national monument, preserving the pristine wilderness area and ensuring recreational access for years to come.
The bill has been introduced in the Senate and has been referred to the Committee on Energy and Natural Resources.
Located west of Lake George, Badger Flats lies between Lost Creek Wilderness and Farnum Roadless Area. The extensive network of user-created routes is destroying native vegetation and fragmenting local wildlife habitat. Volunteers and staff from Colorado Mountain Club, Great Old Broads for Wilderness and Wild Connections work with the South Platte Ranger District to address wildlife habitat degradation by inventorying, closing and rehabilitating non-system roads and trails. Monthly work days are scheduled throught the summer and fall.
Rampart Range Wildlands Project
Trail work. Photo Rampart Range Wildlands Projec
Wild Connections is cooperating with this initiative of the Colorado Mountain Club's Denver and Pike's Peak chapters. We aim to work with a diversity of stakeholders in determining how best to protect this special area on the eastern Rampart Range while also being conscious of others needs.Work days this summer and fall are improving the Ice Cave Creek Trail and inventorying natural features and biodiversity.
Wild Connections 2168 Pheasant Pl., Colorado Springs, CO 80909 info@wildconnections.org719-686-5905
