The Salida and Leadville Ranger Districts of the Pike-San Isabel National Forests & Cimarron and Comanche National Grasslands are requesting public input to shape potential strategies for managing vehicle-based dispersed camping on National Forest System lands in Colorado’s Chaffee, Freemont, Saguache, Park, and Lake counties.
Managers are hoping to maximize both the quality and the quantity of vehicle-based dispersed camping in these districts while minimizing the impacts on natural resources, Bureau of Land Management lands, non-public lands, and other recreators.
“The growing desire for public land use brings increased pressure on forest resources, an uptick in user conflicts, and a rise in human-caused wildfire occurrences,” said Salida Ranger District Recreation Program Manager Ben Lara. “The extensive, unplanned development of camping spurs is causing resource damage and diminishing the experiences of visitors, including campers, on our public lands.”
Interested parties can submit input until April 4, 2022, and can sign up for additional updates on the project and additional comment periods. To learn more about the project, see the Dispersed Camping Management Project StoryMap.
To provide written input and upload documents, visit the project website and select the “Comment/Object on Project” link.
The districts are looking to identify areas where they should concentrate planning efforts, consider other dispersed camping opportunities, explore management strategies, and shape thorough and efficient analyses of proposed actions.
Public input addressing the who, what, when, where, why, and how of proposed actions will help inform the scope and initiation of an environmental assessment for vehicle-based dispersed camping management in Salida and Leadville in the summer of 2022.
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