Over 6.5 million acres of National Forest and Bureau of Land Management lands are still roadless but, without permanent protection, are vulnerable to energy development, logging, and off-road vehicles. It is these untouched areas that ensure our communities can enjoy clean air, clean water, beautiful vistas, healthy wildlife, and remarkable recreation experiences. Our goal is to protect forever these last special places where natural ecological processes, primitive recreation, and wildness prevail.

Protecting Roadless Lands

The Colorado Mountain Club has been working hard for the last several years to protect Colorado’s remaining roadless areas.  In early 2005, the current administration overturned the 2001 Roadless Area Conservation Rule, which protected all of the remaining roadless lands in Colorado and throughout the U.S. Colorado then began its own statewide process to decide how to manage its roadless areas, and the CMC co-chaired the Colorado roadless campaign, leading efforts statewide to keep our roadless areas from commercial and industrial development.   We continue to work to permanently protect our Colorado roadless lands, by closely tracking the Colorado Statewide Petition process, as well as legal rulings and challenges to the original Roadless Rule.

Promoting New Wilderness

Since The Wilderness Act was passed 1964, the Colorado Mountain Club has been actively working to promote the designation of new wilderness in Colorado.  In the Act, wilderness is described as "an area where the earth and its community of life are untrammeled by man, where man himself is a visitor who does not remain".  Wilderness designation protects the very experience that CMC members seek in the backcountry – quiet, solitude, adventure, and a general escape from the sights and sounds of urban life.   It also protects critical wildlife habitat, clean water, clean air and the integrity of the landscape.
The Conservation Department at the CMC is working to add to our existing wilderness system, which includes areas such as the Maroon Bells-Snowmass, Flattops, and Holy Cross Wilderness areas.  With our partner organizations around Colorado, the CMC is focusing our efforts on several different wilderness campaigns.  These include Greater Dominguez Canyons, Rocky Mountain National Park, Brown’s Canyon, White River Hidden Gems, and the Colorado Wilderness Proposal.

Protecting Threatened Lands

The state of Colorado is experiencing threats to its wildlands today like never before.  While it has experienced a long history of mineral extraction, Colorado has recently become ground zero in the rush to uncover the gas reserves of the Rocky Mountain West.  In 2006 alone, a record 5,904 gas well permits were issued in Colorado.  Over 29,000 oil and gas wells are currently operating in the state, and we are anticipating up to 30,000 more in the next 15-20 years.  It is critical during this rush for gas to recognize that certain landscapes may be too special to drill, for both their recreational and ecological values.  The Colorado Mountain Club has identified several areas around the state that fit this bill, and is working to influence the leasing decisions being made on these lands. Lands that the CMC is working to protect include Thompson Creek Roadless Area, the Roan Plateau, and Vermillion Basin.

Influencing Land Protection Decisions

Our land management agencies make decisions on a daily basis about how to manage Colorado’s wild landscapes, and CMC is working to ensure that conservation and quiet recreation issues are being considered when decisions are being made.  From recommending special protections for the Bureau of Land Management’s Areas of Critical Environmental Concern, to promoting Wild and Scenic River designations, to commenting on Forest and Resource Management Plans, the CMC stays on top of decision-making processes that affect our public lands. 

In addition to providing input to our agencies, CMC’s Conservation Director also serves on an advisory council to the Bureau of Land Management, called the Northwest Resource Advisory Council.  Through this council, CMC is able to directly advise the BLM on issues affecting our mountains, canyons and mesas.