Wilderness designation sought for lands near Ashcroft

A scenically stunning part of the upper Castle Creek Valley that was left out of the Maroon Bells-Snowmass Wilderness boundary decades ago could become federally designated wilderness under a bill being contemplated for introduction in Congress.

The Pitkin County commissioners will be asked today to sign a letter of support to include about 1,070 acres west of Ashcroft to a wilderness bill being championed by U.S. Sen. Michael Bennet, a Democrat from Colorado. Wilderness Workshop, the oldest homegrown conservation group in the Roaring Fork Valley, is asking the county commissioners to support what’s being called the Ashcroft Wilderness Addition.

Wilderness Workshop is trying to get the Ashcroft-area lands included in Bennet’s Gunnison Outdoor Resources Protection Act, also known as the GORP Act. Bennet’s office did extensive outreach on the GORP Act proposal in 2022 and is expected to introduce a bill in the Senate this year.

Wilderness Workshop Executive Director Will Rousch said the organization’s conservation partners that have worked on GORP have shown a willingness to accept qualified lands in neighboring counties in the proposal. Rousch said getting the support of the Pitkin County commissioners for the Ashcroft Wilderness Addition is a vital step before asking Bennett to consider adding the Ashcroft lands in his bill.

Somehow, when the Maroon Bells-Snowmass Wilderness was created in 1980, a long, narrow slice of federal land west of Castle Creek Road wasn’t included. Roush said he isn’t sure why.

That strip stretches from the American Lake trailhead on the north boundary to the South Kellogg avalanche chutes on the south boundary. The entire strip is completely west of Castle Creek Road and doesn’t interfere with the ski trails at Ashcroft Ski Touring. The south boundary stops shy of Express Creek Road.

“The area has all the characteristics of wilderness; it has been managed as if it were wilderness, and has no uses or infrastructure (e.g. roads or mechanized trails) that conflict with the Wilderness Act,” said a memo prepared for the county commissioners meeting. “The land is natural, ecologically diverse, intact, untrammeled, provides opportunity for solitude, and has unique features.”

The Ashcroft Wilderness Addition abuts the Maroon Bells-Snowmass Wilderness to the west. An inholding of private land within the proposed wilderness addition would be excluded.

The draft letter being proposed to the Pitkin County commissioners said Ashcroft Ski Touring, Aspen Center for Environmental Studies and Aspen Historical Society have been consulted, and none objected to the proposed boundary of the wilderness addition. Ashcroft Ski Touring operates the winter cross-country ski trails in the area and uses snowcats and snowmobiles for grooming and other parts of the operations. ACES owns the former Toklat Gallery and holds wilderness programs there. Toklat is being renovated this winter. Aspen Historical Society undertakes summer operations at the ghost town of Ashcroft.

Jim Kravitz, naturalist program director at ACES, said the 1,070 acres proposed for the addition to wilderness are important habitat for large mammals such as deer, elk, moose and mountain lions, as well as other smaller species of wildlife. The area is also part of an important transition zone for wildlife crossing from Richmond Ridge to the high ground of the Maroon Bells-Snowmass Wilderness.

“Presently it’s pretty much wilderness quality anyway,” Kravtiz said.

ACES Executive Director Chris Lane said the boundary was adjusted so that a micro-hydro operation located near Toklat would be excluded from wilderness and use would be continued.

“It’s bringing the wilderness boundary to our doorstep,” Lane said.

Approximately the lower third of the Cathedral Lake Trail is in the area eyed for the Ashcroft Wilderness Addition. That rugged, heavily forested terrain exemplifies what the 1,070 acres is like.

While there are no immediate threats of any use altering the landscape, Wilderness Workshop wants to secure protections for the long run.

“In an area with increasing recreation, it is important to our community that we secure lasting protections for places like Ashcroft Addition to ensure that future generations can enjoy this special valley as we do today,” said the draft letter that will be presented to the commissioners.

The timetable for Bennet introducing the bill for the GORP Act isn’t known yet.

Scott Condon, Aspen Daily News Staff Writer