ADVOCATE FOR
WILDERNESS PRESERVATION
Oppose Wheels in Wilderness
We're not against mountain bikes in the forest. In fact, many of our members love to mountain bike. However, we want to preserve our Wilderness areas as places of peace for current and future generations. For 60 years, the Wilderness Act has protected designated Wilderness areas from machines of all types, including cars, trucks, ATVs, OHVs, snowmobiles, bicycles, and all other types of motorized and mechanized transport.
Senator Mike Lee’s (R-UT) S. 4561 would weaken the Wilderness Act and potentially blast open every Wilderness in the nation to mountain bikes and other forms of mechanized transportation.
Support the CORE Act
The result of decades of collaboration, CORE would add 20,196 precious acres to our three local Wilderness Areas -- Eagles Nest, Holy Cross, and Ptarmigan Peak. CORE would create three new local Wilderness Areas in the Tenmile Range, Williams Fork Mountains, and Hoosier Ridge. It will also establish the Tenmile Recreation Management Area with 10,000 additional non-Wilderness acres allowing continued mountain-bike access.
Support Vail Big Horns
A south‐facing hillside in the east end of the Vail Valley has for millenia provided critical winter habitat for the sole-remaining native herd of bighorn sheep in Eagle County, and perhaps the last truly native herd in Colorado. These iconic animals travel between their winter habitat and the Eagles Nest Wilderness. Sometimes called Booth Heights, the land is located north of the East Vail Exit off I‐70. Vail Resorts’ plans to develop high-density housing on the bighorn’s habitat directly threatens this vital winter habitat.
(Photo Credit: vailbighorn.com)
Oppose Berlaimont
ESWA opposes the proposed Berlaimont development that would construct nineteen 35-acre trophy estates, with 9 “accessory units,” in a private 680-acre inholding in critical winter wildlife habitat in the White River National Forest above Edwards.
Oppose PARC Act
The PARC Act would allow the permanent installation of sport climbing bolts and other fixtures on climbing routes in Wilderness Areas. We believe this is a violation of the Wilderness Act and represents an opening that would allow others to intrude on the Wilderness.