Grand Mesa-Uncompahgre-Gunnison Forest Plan

The Grand Mesa, Uncompahgre and Gunnison National Forests stretch across nine counties, with uses ranging from recreation, to logging, to livestock grazing, to management of vital wildlife habitat.

Start any conversation about how such a sprawling landscape of multiple uses should be managed in future years, and it's bound to be a spirited discussion. Case in point: The U.S. Forest Service's work to revise its GMUG land management plan.

One of the highlights of our public lands advocacy in 2021 was leading local and regional engagement in the GMUG National Forest Plan revision process. After a long wait, the GMUG’s Draft Forest Plan and Draft Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) were released for public review and comment in August.

There’s one month left to submit comments on the Draft GMUG Forest Plan and Draft Environmental Impact Statement (DEIS). High Country Conservation Advocates (HCCA) is asking all of our members and supporters to comment today to help shape the future of our incredible National Forest lands.

The GMUG forest plan revision process is a once-in-a-generation opportunity to influence how the USFS manages a huge chunk of Colorado’s public lands. The GMUG has in it 36,000 miles of rivers and streams, some of which wind through the Western Slope’s most remote landscapes. Yet the Forest Service is considering less than 4% of those miles as eligible for protection under the Wild and Scenic Rivers Act.

On Tuesday, September 28, from 5:00 to 7:00 pm, the Forest Service’s Gunnison Ranger District will host a virtual open house to discuss the GMUG’s draft forest plan and its alternatives. High Country Conservation Advocates (HCCA) is asking all of our members and supporters who care about the future of the Gunnison National Forest to attend and speak up on behalf of wilderness, wildlife, and sustainable recreation.

During the forest planning process, the public has the opportunity to weigh in on the unique qualities of our local creeks and rivers and to comment on whether certain segments are eligible for inclusion in the National Wild & Scenic Rivers System.

Our work takes us to beautiful places! Fall means that our staff get to sneak outside for stewardship projects and to collect data demonstrating that special protections are warranted for some of our favorite ecosystems.  Protecting our streams requires that we collect data to demonstrate that these streams meet Colorado’s highest designation for water quality protections.

Conservation advocates this week began digesting the more than 1,300 pages of documents that make up the U.S. Forest Service draft plan for much of the Western Slope. The plan includes detailed environmental impact analyses and reams of source materials. But even a cursory look yielded a warning sign for many groups: a dramatic increase in the amount of land designated as “suitable timber” for logging.

The long awaited draft revision plan for the Grand Mesa, Uncompaghre and Gunnison (GMUG) National Forest was released last week on August 13 and the public will have 90 days to make comments on the proposal. The plan is the major guiding document on how things like recreation, logging and wildlife are managed on the nearby national forests.

The Grand Mesa, Uncompahgre and Gunnison national forest totals just short of 3 million acres across Colorado’s Western Slope. Once certified the new Forest Plan, which is open for public comment thru Nov. 12, will guide the GMUG decision for decades. Matt Reed wants the public to know how they can get involved, and talks about areas where he thinks the plan needs improvement.