The mission of Rocky Mountain Field Institute (RMFI) is to integrate environmental stewardship, education, and research through the exemplary restoration of key natural areas. RMFI works in partnership with a variety of local, state, and federal land management agencies to provide on-the-ground stewardship including, but not limited to, trail construction, restoration of social trails and undesignated campsites, stream and wetland restoration, and alpine restoration. We are a resource for public lands agencies and provide the following services: consulting, research, planning, and trail and restoration implementation. Our land management partners determine the work they need accomplished and work with RMFI to ensure their management goals are met. We highly respect our land management partners’ decisions and the difficult choices they must make in determining management needs in light of shrinking budgets. As it is outside the scope of RMFI's mission to advocate for or against official agency management policies, we do not take a position on the proposal to collect fees in South Colony Lakes Basin in the Sangre de Cristo Wilderness Area. RMFI is a neutral organization that strives to balance the needs of the environment with the needs of recreation users. However, RMFI is in a position to offer a unique perspective on South Colony Lakes Basin as it has spent the last 13 years completing trail and restoration projects throughout the area. Given our history and involvement in the basin, we would like to share our experiences, and by doing so, hope to provide all interested parties an on-the-ground perspective that can aid in making an informed decision to this highly contentious issue.

In 1994, RMFI and the Colorado Fourteeners Initiative completed a partnership study of 52 of the 14,000-ft peaks in Colorado. The studies found that Fourteener routes were marked with erosion gullies, networks of user-created social trails, and large denuded areas. It was determined that the lack of a single, sustainable summit trail was the principal cause. Mount Humboldt, located in the South Colony Lakes Basin, was identified as a top priority in the study due to its popularity and the severe degradation of the alpine that was occurring. In partnership with the San Carlos Ranger District, RMFI began work on the Mount Humboldt erosion control and restoration project in 1997. The project focused on stabilization and revegetation of climber-created erosion gullies, and the construction of a sustainable summit trail.

Since that initial project, RMFI, with the help of thousands of volunteers, has constructed trails leading to the summits of Crestone Needle, Crestone Peak, and Mount Humboldt. It has completed extensive restoration on Broken Hand Pass, Mount Humboldt, Crestone Needle, and within the basin. More recently, it worked with the Forest Service to establish a new trailhead, resulting from the Forest Service’s decision to close the South Colony Road 3 miles below the mouth of the basin. In total, RMFI has spent over 1,000 workdays in the basin with the help of 1,471 volunteers. The value of the volunteers’ time is over $1.8 million. However, the work is not done. While trails are important they are but one component of the comprehensive management required in the basin. Maintenance, continued restoration, and most importantly, education are still needed. Visitation levels continue to increase within the basin along with associated impacts to the basin’s ecosystem. The accumulation of human waste, continued creation of social trails and ad hoc campsites, wood foraging for campfires at treeline, and visitor disturbance of wildlife have all increased since we first started 13 years ago. Experiential values such as solitude, which is mandated by the Wilderness Act, are also endangered.

The current state of funding for our national public lands requires that agencies go beyond their general operating budget and find creative ways to accomplish their goals. Public stewardship programs and partnerships with “friends” organizations such as the Rocky Mountain Field Institute have become critically important as a way to get work done on the ground and leverage dwindling amounts of federal funds. RMFI has been very successful in funding the capital improvement work within the basin; however, the majority of these funding sources are not available for on-going maintenance and user education. With the anticipated continued increase in use, the long-term successful management of the basin depends on finding a solution that can generate significant support and cooperation from all users and interest groups.

For more information on the fee proposal, please see the USDA Forest Service, Pike and San Isabel National Forests, San Carlos Ranger District website: http://www.fs.fed.us/r2/psicc/sanc/

Articles about the fee proposal:

Denver Post: Forest Service Weighing Proposal to Plan to Require Fees from Peak Hikers
Denver Post Editorial: Fee Will Protect Colorado's Fourteeners
High Country News: Boots on the Trail Ought to Pay Up
Western Slope No Fee Coalition