Keeping Colorado Wild The Colorado Mountain Club and Wilderness Designation
“Colorado Mountain Club members do not have to be sold on the need for preservation of natural wild areas in Colorado and the United States.” – Raymond R. Lanier, chairman of State Parks and Wilderness for the Colorado Division of the Izaak Walton League of America, in “Some Wilderness Area Problems,” Trail and Timberline #477, September 1958
T
he wilderness experience is defined by remarkable moments: scrambling across a serrated ridgeline as building winds swirl; arching back to digest the full beauty, staggering volume, and ancient poise of a massif in morning light; stumbling upon that rarely seen moose dipping his tongue into the reeds. Many of us expend great energy in pursuit of these humbling moments. But most of us devoted to touching the wild also know that superior fervor is essential for the eternal protection of these lands. The Colorado Mountain Club has shown such devotion and has worked tirelessly throughout its history to preserve Colorado’s wild places. Towards Wilderness The movement towards a system of wilder-
1872 Yellowstone becomes the nation's first national park.
1897 The Forest "Organic" Act (formally titled the Sundry Civil Appropriations Act of 1897) establishes the National Forest system for the purpose of "securing favorable conditions of water flow, and securing a continuous supply of timber..."
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ness protection began in earnest in the first half of the twentieth century. As early as 1925, Aldo Leopold had promoted a vision for a “definite national policy,” advocating for a system of wilderness areas involving both national parks and forests. In 1934, Bob Marshall built upon this idea with his endorsement for a “nationwide wilderness plan,” suggesting the need to protect, by statutory law, the parks and forests, and extending protection to the public lands administered by what became the Bureau of Land Management, Indian reservations, and state and private lands. In 1945, Howard Zahniser emerged at the head of the wilderness movement when he was appointed as the executive secretary of The Wilderness Society and editor of the organization’s publication, Living Wilderness. Zahniser used the magazine to educate a wider public on the advantages of wilderness preservation and to alert supporters to emerging threats to surviving wildlands. In the early 1950s, he led the pivotal campaign to preserve Echo Park and prevent the construction of a dam within Dinosaur National Monument. This celebrated conservation victory brought the wilderness movement intense publicity and garnered the political clout to
1903 The nation's first wildlife refuge is formed when President Theodore Roosevelt protects Pelican Island, Florida, from hunters who had been decimating the island's bird population. Nearly 70 years later the area is designated a wilderness (in 1970), becoming the smallest designated wilderness in the system (5 acres).
1905 The Department of Agriculture is tasked with managing forest reserves under the auspices of the United States Forest Service.
push for federal wilderness legislation. On the local scale, numerous organizations and groups like the Colorado Mountain Club began to engage on the issue. On November 14, 1958, E. H. Brunquist, a representative of the club’s board of directors and conservation committee, attended a hearing in Albuquerque, New Mexico, in support of a bill to establish the National Wilderness Preservation System. Hotly debated, the proposed bill was receiving considerable criticism despite numerous revisions and concessions. Ironically, those opposed to the bill struggled with many of the same perceived problems that wilderness opponents grapple with today: they contended the bill would “strike a blow at the very heart of the state’s economy and the ability of its people to make a decent living”; they were under the impression that “the wilderness areas [could] be used for recreation and not much else”; they were afraid that designation would “lock the treasure chest of the U.S. and throw away the key.” For the next six years, debate persisted over the language and goals of the proposed bill; Brunquist continued to represent the club’s interests in a national system for wilderness protection.
1911 The Weeks Act appropriates $9 million to purchase six million acres of land in the eastern United States for the purpose of establishing national forests.
1916 The National Park Organic Act creates the National Park Service and establishes the National Park System in order to conserve scenery, wildlife, and "historic objects" for future generations.
