Lands with Wilderness Characteristics: Badito Cone Contiguous Units Badito Cone over Badito Cone South unit, Royal Gorge Field Office Photo: John Sztukowski The intent of this report is to present objective data to illustrate that the area in question qualifies as Lands with Wilderness Characteristics (LWC), in accordance with Bureau of Land Management (BLM) Manuals 6310 and 6320. The information presented in this report meets the minimum standards for review of new information per Manual 6310, and accordingly BLM must review this information and make its findings and documentation of the review process available to the public as soon as practicable. Lands with Wilderness Characteristics: Badito Cone Contiguous Units BLM Royal Gorge Field Office, Front Range District BLM Unit Identifiers: COF-020-001 (Badito Cone), COF-020-002 (North Hondo), COF-020-003 (Chitwood Gulch), COF-020-087 (Badito Cone North) Submitted by: Wild Connections 2168 Pheasant Place, Colorado Springs, CO 80909 [email protected]; (719) 686 - 5905 Prepared by: John Sztukowski, Wildlands Inventory Coordinator, Wild Connections [email protected]; (817) 939 - 4239 Report Date: March 2015 Table of Contents Map of Badito Cones Contiguous Units LWC ....................................................................................... 3 Overview ......................................................................................................................................................... 4 Discussion of Wilderness Characteristics including Boundary Delineations......................... 6 I. The Badito Cone Contiguous Units proposed LWC meets the minimum size criteria for roadless lands. ............................................................................................................................................................................ 6 II. The Badito Cone Contiguous Units proposed LWC is primarily affected by the forces of nature. ...................................................................................................................................................................................... 10 III. The Badito Cone Contiguous Units proposed LWC provides outstanding opportunities for solitude and primitive recreation. .................................................................................................................... 13 IV. The Badito Cone Contiguous Units proposed LWC has supplemental values that would enhance the wilderness experience and should be recognized and protected. .................................. 14 Summary Conclusion ............................................................................................................................... 16 Badito Cone Contiguous Units Proposed LWC Waypoints .......................................................... 18 2 Map of Badito Cones Contiguous Units LWC 3 Overview The Badito Cone Contiguous Units proposed Lands with Wilderness Characteristics (LWC) is comprised of BLM lands contiguous with the Greenhorn Mountain Wilderness and/or United States Forest Service (USFS) Roadless Recommended Wilderness around the geological feature, Badito Cone. The proposed LWC is made up of four units that comprise approximately 7,600 acres, wrapping around the Wet Mountains predominantly to the south, but to the southeast and southwest as well. The nearest town is Walsenburg, CO, located about 20 miles to the southeast. All units are located in Huerfano County. The Badito Cone area supports a diversity of vegetation, primarily consisting of pinyon-juniper woodlands in the rugged rocky uplands with ponderosa pine mixing in at higher elevations. Cottonwoods and willows can be observed in the gulches that drain the unit. The terrain is predominantly steep and rocky, made up of canyons, cliffs, and rock outcroppings. The proposed LWC ranges from elevations of approximately 6,400 feet at its southernmost point to about 8,400 feet near the units’ boundaries approaching the USFS Recommended Wilderness to the east. Prairie grasslands can be found in the lower foothills to the south and east. The Badito Cone Contiguous Units proposed LWC is largely bordered by private property. Road 438 represents the only major access point to any of the units, splitting the two largest units to the southwest, bordering both as the road makes its way to Badito Cone and Forest Service land. County Road 616 borders the southern portion of the largest of these units for a short distance. The remainder of these and all units can otherwise only be accessed by foot via contiguous USFS land. The four Badito Cone Contiguous Units will be referenced geographically, beginning in the northwest, moving counterclockwise around the Wet Mountains. The northwestern unit, Arroyo Hondo, is approximately 530 acres, and does not offer public access. The BLM inventoried this unit as COF-020- 002 (North Hondo) and found the unit to have wilderness characteristics. Below this unit is Badito Cone West, approximately 950 acres, and has a southern boundary of USFS Road 438. The BLM inventoried this unit as COF-020-087 (Badito Cone North) and also found it to have wilderness characteristics. The Badito Cone South unit is by far the largest of these areas, comprising over 5,800 acres. Its northern boundary primarily consists of USFS recommended wilderness, with USFS Road 438 the northern boundary to the northwest. The BLM inventoried this unit as COF-020-001 (Badito Cone) and found wilderness characteristics on 4,866.2 acres, but not on 923.5 acres, identified as COF-020- 001-A (delineated by the yellow line in the above map), the northwestern portion of this area adjacent to USFS Road 438. The BLM did not find wilderness characteristics in this area due to grazing features and access, evidence of old mining, and evidence of timber harvesting. While this subunit does have man-made features, they are largely unnoticeable and do not affect the natural integrity or the apparent naturalness of the unit overall (BLM Manual 6310, p 6-7), particularly when taking into account for the larger 5,800 acre BLM contiguous area, not to mention the greater wilderness corridor this can create with the USFS Greenhorn Mountain Wilderness and Roadless Recommended Wilderness to the north. Furthermore some of the features found within this unit can be considered historical. 4 The final unit making up the Badito Cone Contiguous Units proposed LWC is Apache Creek, the northeastern most of these units, and comprises about 330 acres. The BLM inventoried this unit as COF-020-003 (Chitwood Gulch) and found it to have wilderness characteristics. The roads leading to this unit are inaccessible to the public. This unit mostly aligns with a Colorado Natural Heritage Program (CNHP) Potential Conservation Area (PCA), identified for moderate biodiversity significance. The Badito Cone Contiguous Units proposed LWC has high habitat and range values for many wildlife species, including Canadian lynx, swift fox, Rocky Mountain bighorn sheep, black bear, elk, mule deer, white-tailed deer, pronghorn, mountain lion, black-tailed prairie-dog and Gunnison’s prairie-dog. Critical and valued bird species identified in this area include the Mexican spotted owl and scaled quail, both identified as priority birds by Partnership in Flight. The threatened fish species, the greenback cutthroat trout can be found in the Apache Creek unit. Opportunities for solitude and primitive recreation are abundant in the proposed Badito Cone Contiguous Units LWC. The steep rocky terrain, mid-elevation forests, vegetated gulches, and grassland prairies provide extensive opportunity for solitude in the forms of isolation, remoteness, lack of visitation and vegetative and topographic screening. Primitive recreation is also available in all seasons, including hunting, fishing, backpacking, hiking, wildlife viewing, bird watching, and photography. BLM's Manual 6310 states that the boundary delineation for a LWC unit "is generally based on the presence of Wilderness Inventory Roads" but can also be based on property lines between different types of land ownership or on developed rights of way (Manual 6310, p 4). These were the parameters Wild Connections used to define the boundaries of the Badito Cone Contiguous Units proposed LWC. Only after the true boundaries of the contiguous roadless unit are identified can an objective and thorough assessment of that unit's wilderness characteristics be made. In the spring of 2013, Wild Connections produced a preliminary boundary delineation for this unit based on the size and contiguity requirements stated in Manual 6310 (p 6). In 2014, Wild Connections' mapping teams visited the Badito Cone Contiguous Units proposed LWC to conduct in- depth, on-the-ground inventories of these units. Our goal was to assess this area for wilderness characteristics, based on BLM's Manual 6310, and report our findings to the BLM's Royal Gorge Field Office in efforts to identify potential wilderness areas to expand "wildlands" corridors in central Colorado. Additionally we have reviewed the 2013 BLM RGFO inventory and boundaries and have made assessments and adjustments based on our in-depth field inventories. Wild Connections’ report offers new in-depth data and information, including photo, narrative, and geo-referenced data, supporting the Badito Cone Contiguous Units proposed LWC. The boundary delineations and narratives describing the wilderness characteristics found within this unit are detailed below. Waypoints (many with photos)