Background Statement
Wild Connections promotes conserving habitat for native plants and animals, fostering clean streams and rivers, wildlands protection, and enjoying backcountry recreation in central Colorado.
Since 1995. volunteers have documented hundreds of thousands of acres of roadless lands, and as a result the Forest Service added 103,600 acres to its Colorado Roadless inventory and the BLM increased their Lands with Wilderness Characteristics inventory from 78,000 acres to 183,000 acres. Wild Connections leads campaigns for public participation in the BLM’s resource planning process and the Forest Service's travel management planning.
Habitat restoration projects demonstrate collaboration among organizations, volunteers, and the Forest Service to reclaim degraded wildlife areas. Projects are in Trout Creek, Green Mountain, Geneva Basin, Farnum Peak, Selkirk Gulch, Packer Gulch, Badger Flats, Rock Creek, LaSalle Pass, Beaver Creek, N Tarryall Creek, and Sheep Creek. We are working with the Forest Service on a multi-year restoration project in Wildcat Canyon.
Guided hikes bring citizens into some of the wildest areas for a firsthand experience of solitude, wilderness values and wildlife encounters. The hikes encourage people to take action to protect these areas.
We envision a wildlands network of protected core areas that are connected by high quality wildlife habitat. The Wild Connections Conservation Plan (WCCP), a science-based conservation scenario, was created by citizens and incorporates roadless area inventory and biological data and input from regional workshops. The WCCP will be augmented by including climate refugia for wildlife and biodiversity as climatic conditions change.