Wilderness Study Group Records

Students at the University of Colorado interested in preserving Colorado’s Wilderness initiated The Wilderness Study Group in 1970. By pursuing three areas of public land management: wilderness research, public education, and distribution of research, the Wilderness Study Group has helped to convert otherwise exploitable landscapes into Wilderness Areas. Designated wilderness areas have been protected under the National Environmental Protection Act (1968), the Wilderness Act (1970) and the BLM Organic Act (1976), among other laws. However, de facto wilderness has had to qualify for Congressional wilderness classification, which required public persuasion and research. The Wilderness Study Group has carried out field research usually during the summer months concerning timber status, vegetation, wildlife patterns and habitat as well as recreational use and mineralization. The information gathered by the Wilderness Study Group has supplemented other reports and studies performed by other agencies and officials such as the Bureau of Land Management, the National Forest Service, the National Park Service, and the U.S. Geological Survey.

Information, technique and research data from the Wilderness Study Group has also provided resources for students across disciplines within the University. As well as university students, the Wilderness Study Group has collaborated with and provided information for other Colorado conservation groups and interested individuals. Proposals made by the Wilderness Study Group have had key influence in the consideration of Colorado’s possible Wilderness areas. For example, in 1973 the wilderness study group reported on the Chicago Basin and Wenimuche Primitive area to the Colorado Open Space Council and the U.S. Senate Public Lands subcommittee. Two days later Congressman James Johnson of the fourth congressional district requested information on the Mount Zirkel area. Examples such as the Wenimuche and Mount Zirkel Wilderness , according to former WSG treasurer and chairman of COSC Wilderness Workshop Edward Whitesell has given importance to public comment on land and resource legislature, “the Wilderness Study Group’s investigations were done in the tradition of objectivity and thoroughness that has established citizen field research organizations in the Wilderness Movement.”

The Wilderness Study Group has been an influential public source in congress because it has recognized many of the immediate public concerns surrounding land management. The first six Colorado wild-lands to be of primary concern to the group (1972) were Holy Cross wilderness, Hunter-Frying Pan in White River National Forest including the Maroon Bells and Snowmass Wilderness, La Garita, First Fork within the Piedra Forest of the San Juans, and Hermosa. Later the Group added (1973) Mount Zirkel, Dinosaur National Monument, Flattops, Eagle’s Nest and the Weminuche Primitive area. The Wilderness Study Group has included hundreds of areas into its focus, including the Bison’s grazing range in Yellowstone National Park to the Rainforests of Northern Brazil.

In the process of investigating and making proposals regarding wilderness, the Wilderness Study Group sought to gather information that led to public recommendations concerning the distribution and preservation of land units. Insight not only into the makeup of the land but also the public policy effecting land, wildlife and natural resources has directed attention to environmental areas around Colorado. The Wilderness Study Group gathered research data as well as investigating the National Forest Service’s environmental impact statements regarding Colorado’s roadless wilderness areas and resource management in both the National Forest Service and Bureau of Land Management. Since then the Wilderness Study Group has been working on two fronts; the summer months provide data acquisition between fall and spring. During the remainder of the year, the group developed policy comprehension in work-shops, training, and experimental courses. Within the workshops, in 1972 some forty individuals, lecturing on policy, at one point offering an experimental course to CU students entitled “Wilderness Policy”, interning at the National Forest Service offices, and following up on previous field studies.

The Wilderness Study Group has had to change its approach throughout its existence. During its first ten years the group was working to assist in the establishment wilderness areas with a sympathetic federal and state government. During the next decade the group needed to take a more defensive posture in the face of more antagonistic administrations. In the 1990’s the Wilderness Study Group was able to participate in the further expansion of the nation’s wilderness areas. Since 2001 the group faces new challenges on both the political front and the training on technological advances.