Special Events

Tim Balzer of the Wilderness Workshop will present an exciting Overview of the "Hidden Gems" effort: The White River Wilderness Coalition – an alliance of local and regional groups, and concerned citizens – is leading the Hidden Gems Wilderness Campaign, seeking designation of major new wilderness additions on the White River National Forest and nearby Bureau of Land Management lands. The proposal would create several brand-new, standalone wilderness areas, while significantly enlarging our existing wildernesses.The White River National Forest is a landscape of national importance, located right here . It’s the country’s most visited national forest, and along with nearby BLM lands it straddles an ecologically vital portion of the Upper Colorado River watershed. These public lands contain a critical stretch of a continent-scale wildlife migration corridor while providing core habitat for Colorado’s recently reintroduced lynx population. Most of the existing designated wilderness in Colorado is of the high-elevation, “rock and ice” variety. Still unprotected are the Hidden Gems targeted in this campaign, which exist at the more ecologically diverse middle elevations and provide some of the most important habitat for imperiled species. Designating these areas as wilderness will add valuable biodiversity to our nation’s wilderness legacy. In addition, areas such as Spraddle Creek (near Vail), Thompson Creek (near Carbondale), Hoosier Ridge (near Breckenridge) and Hunter Creek (near Aspen) are important recreation spots for those communities.