Editor:

Regarding the article “Environmentalists hope for ‘sea change’ under Obama administration” (ADN, Nov. 17): As a hunter, climber, snowboarder, and backpacker that uses Colorado’s wilderness areas more than the average person, I don’t believe we need more wilderness designations. The thousands of acres of current wilderness allow recreational users to get miles and miles away from civilization, but most users do not go any farther than two or three miles. To the rest of us that go “way out there,” we understand that there is plenty of space available to both human and animal. There is no “overcrowding” of wilderness by backcountry users. Environmentalists may argue that we need more space to protect wildlife, but the statistics show that a big-game hunter has no more than a 20 percent chance of success, which implies that most humans do not travel far enough into the backcountry to truly “pressure” the animals.

However, I have seen much overcrowding in non-wilderness National Forest and BLM land. These areas are great for the recreational user because you can drive your vehicle far enough away from civilization on a dirt road and set up camp. As more and more people learn about these areas, they have become overcrowded and the environment starts to feel the impact. As evidence, take a drive up Lincoln Creek Road in the middle of summer and see the dozens of campers set up only a few feet away from each other for miles and miles along the road.

We need more of these non-wilderness areas to spread the traffic around and minimize impact on the current locations. BLM land is most suitable, because they are mostly desert terrain with a lot of space.

A great way to establish more of these areas would be to offer incentives to the energy companies that want to drill on the Roan Plateau. Allow the mining companies to build service roads to all their drilling locations, but do not require them to “erase” the roads when completed. Instead, have them grade out a few open camp locations along the road, and turn them over to the general public for recreational use.

I’m not sure if the president-elect ever packed his family into the truck and drove out to a remote campsite in the National Forest for a weekend, but thousands of Coloradans do, and more and more are getting into it. The human impact is inevitable, so we need an environmental movement that focuses on spreading the impact around, not restricting and concentrating it to less area.

Adam L. Reiner
Carbondale