#gunnison

[plethoraworldatlas]

Conservation groups filed objections this week to the U.S. Forest Service’s proposed final management plan for the Grand Mesa, Uncompahgre and Gunnison national forests in western Colorado. The plan would allow commercial logging on more than 772,000 acres of public lands, including mature and old-growth trees — a 66% increase from the current forest plan.

“A sizeable area of our beloved forests could be sacrificed to commercial logging at the expense of our already dwindling wilderness areas, wildlife habitat and recreation,” said Chad Reich with High Country Conservation Advocates. “Outdoor recreation is a far larger economic driver for our communities than the local timber industry that benefits from cutting these forests. The Forest Service would’ve known that if it had conducted an economic analysis, as required by law.”

Under the proposed plan mature and old-growth forests, which store massive amounts of carbon, could be commercially logged. Forest managers would not be required to identify and protect old-growth and mature trees. Steep slopes across the forests, including Upper Taylor Canyon and Slate River Valley, could also be logged despite the high risk of severe erosion and threats to water quality.

“The proposed plan directly violates federal policy on protecting mature and old-growth trees as a cornerstone of U.S. climate action,” said Alison Gallensky, conservation geographer with Rocky Mountain Wild. “The Grand Mesa, Uncompahgre and Gunnison national forests boast the highest carbon sequestration capacity of any national forest in the Rocky Mountain region. Despite this the Forest Service has failed to ensure these vital carbon sinks aren’t logged and sold.”

Objections also challenged the Forest Service’s failure to take urgently needed climate action by prohibiting new coal leasing in the plan.

...

The Forest Service recommended adding only 46,200 acres of new wilderness area in the final plan. The community’s conservation proposal had called for more than 324,000 acres of new wilderness lands. In addition, the Gunnison Public Lands Initiative offered a broadly supported proposal for new wilderness and special management areas in Gunnison County that was mostly excluded.

...

“Community members proposed special management area designations to protect pristine forestlands in the North Fork Valley from logging and oil and gas drilling,” said Peter Hart, legal director at Wilderness Workshop. “The Forest Service ignored those proposals and chose not to protect those areas in the new plan.”

The groups also raised concerns about the plan’s failure to address the myriad needs of plants and animals that depend on the forests.

“Over 20 years ago Colorado Parks and Wildlife reintroduced Canada lynx to the San Juan Mountains,” said Rocky Smith, a long-time forest management analyst. “This is a great source of pride for wildlife lovers in this state. Lynx are federally threatened and depend on mature forests with large trees. This plan allows for logging that could easily degrade or destroy much of the best habitat for lynx and their main prey, snowshoe hares, and undermine Colorado’s hard work to reestablish and maintain a viable lynx population.”

The Grand Mesa, Uncompahgre and Gunnison national forests also provide habitat for the iconic bighorn sheep and lesser-known species like the Grand Junction milkvetch and the Tundra buttercup. These species, among others, need special designation the Forest Service grants to plants and animals when there is concern about their ability to survive in the area. Many struggling plants and animals were left off the list in the proposed final plan.

“Without the species of conservation concern designation the Forest Service has no obligation to make sure the plants and animals continue to exist locally,” said Chris Krupp, public lands attorney with WildEarth Guardians. “In many cases, the agency decided not to designate wildlife, plants or fish merely because it had no data on their population trends. Without species of conservation concern designation, the number of bighorn sheep in GMUG could dwindle down to almost nothing and the agency wouldn’t have to do anything about it.”

#ecology #enviromentalism #old growth forest #colorado #us forest service #lynx #bighorn sheep #grand mesa #Uncompahgre #gunnison #national forest

[unteriors]

W US Highway 50, Gunnison, Colorado.

#Gunnison #Colorado

[xiaq]

The eyes of people who have not slept and are not happy about it.

Well. It's been an eventful 48 hours. We were supposed to get into Denver Wednesday and head straight to Gunnison. However, our plane was delayed and didn't arrive in Denver until 10pm Wednesday night. Then we sat on the tarmac for 3 hours because the winter storm had all but a couple gates shut down. Then, the tram was down for an hour, which meant we were trapped in the terminal. We finally got to the baggage claim at 3am. And found out they couldn't get our bags off the train so we'd need to "come back tomorrow." Except we couldn't leave, because there were no ride-shares or taxis or rental cars available because of the storm. It was -12 (-25 with windchill) so walking somewhere wasn't an option. Our coats and cold-weather clothes were in our checked bags. And the hotel next door was full. At 10am (after maybe 2-3 hrs of restless sleep) we finally got our bags and our car and had breakfast at Rivers and Roads (10/10 do recommend, the barista gave us free gluten-free donut holes after hearing about our ordeal).

We got on the road at 11:30am, which is when the snowstorm hit. So the 3-hour drive took closer to 6. Here's a video toward the end when we finally drove out of the snowstorm and the sun came out, except the wind was blowing freshly fallen snow all over the road (lol @ B's little "you're doing great" at the end).

We finally got to Gunnison at 6 last night. Got frozen dinners to heat up in our motel microwave, took Deacon for a well-deserved walk (he has been the BIGGEST trooper through all this nonsense) and fell into bed by 9pm. We slept fantastically, woke up refreshed and feeling like new people today, and fully enjoyed visiting my old haunts in Gunnison (including stopping at Boom-A-Rang thrift for vintage snowsuits and Tributary Coffee for Tumeric/Ginger lattes).

I was rocking my best 90's mom look and intend to continue doing so. We then hit the road for Montrose, and are now cozy in our hotel. We'll hike in the Black Canyon tomorrow morning and then head to Telluride :)

This has been a Winter Adventure Update. (I'm planning to propose in Telluride. Probably. We'll see.)

#x goes on an adventure #mylife #b #colorado #gunnison #airtravel #travel woes #the tiniest of violins

[givemewinterpls]

Colorado Polaroids, January 2023

#Personal #Colorado #Polaroid #gunnison #snow #winter #trees #mountains #mountain #ice #winter aesthetic

[decompain]

Necesito un caballero

#me #modification #gunnison #piercing #girls with piercings #sapphic

[dougrobyngoold]

Lowline Trail - West Elk Wilderness, CO

Lovely hike into the West Elk Wilderness today. The trailhead for this hike is also located off of Ohio Creek Road, below the trailhead for Mill Castle. Great views and glorious fall colors.

Pretty meadow, close to where we decided to turn around. 

We had been looking for something to commemorate Doug’s 1000-mile mark on the CDT. On our hike today, we stumbled across these aspen trees that had been cut - perfect for making a “1000″. Great job, Doug, quite an accomplishment!

#colorado #colorado hikes #gunnison #west elk wilderness

[tetramodal]

Powderhorn Acrylic on canvas 8x8".
 Charles Morgenstern, 2022. 
Looking north toward the West Elk Mountains near Powderhorn, Colorado.

#colorado #mountains #landscape #artwork #painting #illustration #acrylic #powderhorn #gunnison #elk mountains #west elk mountains #san juan mountains #nature #outdoors #wilderness #environment #southwest #sky #clouds #drawing #tetramodal #charles morgenstern #artists on tumblr #illustrators on tumblr #art #travel #summer #mountain #trees #forest

[20th-century-railroading]

Narrow gauge classic

Denver & Rio Grande Western K-28 class narrow gauge 2-8-2 No. 474 steams at Gunnison, Colo., in 1940. The railroad had 10 such locomotives, Nos. 470-479, built by Alco in 1923. They were retired in 1946. R.H. Kindig photo

#d&rgw #rio grande #1940 #trains #passenger train #freight train #history #gunnison #colorado

[muybridgeshorse]

Carol Serur

#snow #gunnison #colorado #photography

[jasonwissner]

Kickstart Your Traveling Journey: A Weekend in Crested Butte

Embarking on a travel adventure can often feel like stepping into the unknown. It's thrilling, yes, but where do you start? My family found our answer this September in Crested Butte, Colorado.

Intro Embarking on a travel adventure can often feel like stepping into the unknown. It’s thrilling, yes, but where do you start? My family found our answer this September in Crested Butte, Colorado. A weekend getaway that proved autumn is the season of discovery. Let me take you through the journey that might inspire your next escapade. Autumn Adventures in Crested Butte In Crested Butte…

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#adventure #aspen trees #autumn #best places to travel #best places to visit in usa #black canyon #blogging #gunnison #jason wissner #kebler pass #paonia #places to go #places to visit in usa #top of the rockies

[waybackwanderer]

Internet Colorado: Contact Feb 2006 Archived Web Page 🧩 🔊

#gunnison #2006

[hanludoyle]

Downtown Crested Butte

#colorado mountain town #gunnison #crested butte #cute towns in colorado #vacation spots colorado #mountain views #popular travel destinations

[coldmountainair]

Curecanti Needle, Northwest Rib

#blackcanyon #climbing #rockclimbing #gunnison #colorado #curecantineedle #rafting #adventure #wanderlust #travel #tradisrad

[givemewinterpls]

Gunnison National Forest, CO

#snow #winter #trees #ice #Forest #National forest #Gunnison #Colorado #Personal #Travel

[gunnisonpizza]

#Congrats to #GunnisonPizza for taking 2nd Place in the @WestElkHockey Winter Gunnison League Open Division 🥈 #hockey #community #winter #gunnison #league #opendivision #2nd #place #GPC (at Jorgensen Event Center) https://www.instagram.com/p/CqJyURHJPzc/?igshid=NGJjMDIxMWI=

#congrats #gunnisonpizza #hockey #community #winter #gunnison #league #opendivision #2nd #place #gpc

[dougrobyngoold]

Baldy Hike - West Elk Wilderness, CO

This is another one of our favorite hikes to do in the West Elk Wilderness. The hike starts at the Rainbow Lakes Trailhead. The first part of the trail is through a beautiful forest, the trail is quite pleasant up to the wilderness boundary. Once you reach the wilderness boundary, the trail begins to climb and continues to climb until you reach the meadow in the picture above. You can continue straight and follow the trail down to Elk Creek (quite a beautiful descent) or take the right and head over to Baldy. That is where we are headed today.

Three deer that were REALLY unhappy when we came along. They were right next to the trail and did not want to leave whatever they were munching on - they went just a little ways away from the trail and stopped. On our way back, they were still hanging around the trail, good thing we weren’t hunters!

What a spectacular day - so gorgeous!

View from our lunch spot!

Looking toward the east from our lunch spot.

Cool butterfly, wouldn’t open up for a picture, but still cool!

Fall colors!

Beautiful last picture from Colorado, we are heading to New Mexico in another day, but I know we will be back next year!

#colorado #colorado hikes #gunnison #west elk wilderness