Speak Up Now for the GMUG
UPDATE: Comments now due May 18
Colorado’s largest National Forest unit is now undergoing a management plan revision that could determine how these lands are used for decades, with the quality and health of many resources and lands in the balance.
The Grand Mesa–Uncompahgre-Gunnison National Forests (GMUG) is the largest forest service unit in the state and region and a true treasure. Some of Colorado’s wildest and most remote public lands can be found here. The forests include an incredible diversity of ecotypes and a wealth of wildlife and critical habitats, including for Colorado’s prized big game and for numerous sensitive, threatened and endangered species. The hunting here is some of the best in the nation.
KBUT Radio: Forest Plan Revision Comment Period Underway
The creation of the federal “Forest Reserves” that became today’s GMUG dates to the early days of Colorado’s statehood. As a single “administrate unit” these three National Forests comprise the largest in Colorado and the entire Rocky Mountain Region, at almost 3 million acres.
Go here to leave a comment supporting protection of the GMUG’s lands, wildlife habitat, and critical resources.
Businesses can join a letter of support here.
Key Points to Make in Comments by May 3rd
The GMUG forest plan revision should prioritize conservation on the forest.
Addressing climate change will require adaptive measures to increase the forest’s resiliency, and climate change impacts and benefits of the forest should be accounted for in the plan.
Recreation is an important value on the forest. But recreation must be managed with an eye toward sustainability. The GMUG is a backcountry treasure. The recreation opportunities should recognize and enhance these qualities. Recreation planning should reflect impacts trails and human use can have on wildlife.
Western Colorado communities rely on the GMUG. Many of our drinking water sources and our agricultural prosperity depend on the health and sustainability of the watersheds these forests safeguard. Heightened care should be taken in all the headwaters areas of the forest.
Deserving backcountry and wild lands should be elevated to Recommended Wilderness status, as reflected in the conservation community’s recommended wilderness proposal.
Check out the interactive GMUG map and the community’s conservation proposal
An American Legacy and Colorado Tradition
Battlement Mesa Forest Reserve (which later became the Grand Mesa National Forest) was established in Colorado on Christmas Eve in 1892.
It was the third forest reserve in the United States, created by President Benjamin Harrison under the Land Revision Act of 1891, a law that gave the president authority to create federal forest reserves on public lands. The next president, also a Republican, was Theodore Roosevelt who used the law to create 150 forest reserves, including expanding the Battlement Reserve in 1905, and reserving the Gunnison/Cochetopa, and Uncompahgre Forest Reserves as well that same year. Today the three, with the main office in Delta, are now called the Grand Mesa, Uncompahgre and Gunnison National Forests, and administered as a single unit, a configuration that dates to 1973.
