Forest Service celebrates 203 acres of private land-turned wilderness

Private land "gaps" have been filled as public wilderness in western Colorado.

The U.S. Forest Service recently announced 203 acres of inholdings acquired in partnership with the Wilderness Land Trust. That included three parcels across the Grand Mesa, Uncompahgre and Gunnison national forests.

The addition "protects wild and undeveloped viewsheds and consolidates private ownership within national forest system lands, eliminating the need for special use authorizations," Gunnison District Ranger Dayle Funka said in a news release. “Acquisition of these parcels will help strengthen and preserve" wilderness areas.

The largest of the parcels is the 183 acres referred to as Cross Mountain, consisting of 11 mining claims within Fossil Ridge Wilderness northeast of Gunnison. A Forest Service news release described the area of "granite peaks, high mountain lakes and valleys shaped by ancient glaciers."

The Wilderness Trust in recent years announced acquiring the other two parcels, ahead of their formal transfers to the Forest Service: mining claims referred to as Copper Glance and Straeder.

The Wilderness Trust previously recognized Copper Glance's 10 acres as the last private inholding remaining in Queen Basin, a historic scene of mining now protected as Maroon Bells-Snowmass Wilderness.

Also about 10 acres, the Straeder mining claim had sat at the edge of Raggeds Wilderness outside Crested Butte. The Wilderness Trust called it "a great example of the impact of viewsheds on our wilderness experiences."

With present mining machinery or development, "no longer would you have the same sense of quiet, of solitude in the vastness," the organization noted, "and of remaining a visitor in the landscape."