URGENT ACTION NEEDED! 

Comments due 6/14

Skiers,

Do you want more quiet recreation opportunities in the Cumbres Pass and Wolf Creek Pass areas?  Around Pagosa Springs?  We need to speak up concerning the Forest Service proposal to designate these areas for *motorized* winter travel. 

Rio Grande National Forest winter travel planning is in progress. The currently proposed plans if implemented would have a huge impact on skiers.  It is concerning that the vast majority of non-Wilderness lands on the forest are proposed to be designated for over-snow vehicle (OSV) use, including high-value x-country ski areas (such as around the yurts) and places with longstanding use conflict. 

Scoping comments are used to focus the agency’s planning on important issues. Comments are due by June 14.   Maps of proposed use areas allow snowmobile travel in the areas around the Cumbres Pass yurts, Wolf Creek Pass, and other areas  used by skiers where we already experience too many conflicts.

 AT MINIMUM please consider signing on to the Winter Wildlands Allisnce letter - linked below - to register your concerns about the intensive over-snow vehicle use that’s proposed.

Even better, submit a comment of your own. Focus on how important specific areas are to skiers and how snowmobile traffic impacts the quality of your recreational experience.

It’s important to tell the FS that skiers need more “primitive, non motorized” areas thsat we can access in winter, not too far from roads and trailheads. . The wilderness areas near Cumbres Pass, for example, are too far from trailheads for a day ski. We need non wilderness areas designated for quiet recreation. 

To see a write-up on the concerns with the Forest Service proposed travel zones/maps: See Action Alert from Winter Wildlands Alliance:  https://winterwildlands.org/rio-grande-scoping-2024/

Sign on to Winter Wildlands comment letter:  https://secure.everyaction.com/JU4YtqzQJEOGtk7I3lAhpA2

Submit a comment to the Forest Service here:  https://cara.fs2c.usda.gov/Public//CommentInput?Project=65529

Read about the Over Snow Travel Management Planning process, view maps:

https://www.fs.usda.gov/detail/riogrande/landmanagement/planning/?cid=fseprd1154726

 Official Forest Service project page with key milestones, dates: https://www.fs.usda.gov/project/riogrande/?project=65529

I’m working on comments on behalf of the Board, happy to share later today. 

Thanks for reading!

Your NMCCSC instruction chair 

Dana