Location: East of and abutting the existing Mount Sneffels Wilderness
Size: 16,377 acres
Elevation Range: Approximately 8,000-14,000 feet
Ecosystems:
Special Features:
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Enlarges a core reserve area
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Increases connectivity between core reserves
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Supports diverse and rare wildlife
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Protects headwaters of major streams and tributaries to the Uncompahgre River
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Provides outstanding hiking, climbing and mountaineering opportunities as well as sweeping vistas
Wilderness Qualities:
Spanning high rocky peaks of 13- to 14-thousand feet, this region includes Teakettle Mountain, Blaine Basin, Senator Gulch, Whitehouse Peak, Mount Ridgway and Potosi Peak among other geographical features. All are untrammeled areas that provide users an opportunity for outstanding solitude and primitive recreation.
What makes this proposed area especially suited for wilderness designation is that it will significantly enlarge an existing core reserve area: Mount Sneffels Wilderness. Core reserves are protected areas that are ecologically viable and function in their natural state. Conservation biology points to the need for core reserves that are large in size and diverse in habitat. Science demonstrates that a larger core reserve area is likely to sustain more habitats and species than a smaller one. Also, natural fluctuations, such as disease, impact small populations more than large ones. “Edge effects”—natural or human impacts on the perimeter of core reserves, such as tree blow-down or human poaching—disturb small reserves more than large ones because small reserves have a larger perimeter-to-area ratio. Multiple studies show that edge effects result in reduced species viability. Large, protected areas that include the full range of habitats are more capable of sustaining natural disturbance regimes, such as wildfires, and of perpetuating diverse and successional ecosystems. Studies show that more mammal species are lost from small national parks than large ones. Setting aside wilderness areas for preservation, in accordance with 1964 Wilderness Act, has proven to be the most effective means of preserving large areas in the United States.
Thus, adding the Whitehouse area to the existing Mount Sneffels Wilderness will have numerous beneficial effects for the wildlife and ecosystems of the region by creating a large core reserve. In addition, designating this site as wilderness would significantly increase connectivity between two core reserve areas: Mount Sneffels Wilderness and the Big Blue Wilderness, north and east of the Sneffels Range. Conservation biologists concur that connecting core reserves is essential for wildlife survival because it allows for genetic exchange, seasonal migration, and re-colonization of species. Large animals, in particular, depend on biologically-linked landscapes for survival: “…[N]o single core area would be large enough to support large carnivores in the Southern Rockies, so carnivores must be able to move throughout the region (not just within a given Wilderness Area)…” (Southern Rockies Ecosystem Project 2003). Canada lynx, for example, might require 500,000 to 1.2 million acres of undeveloped habitat to maintain a viable population, an area greater than any existing Wilderness in the Grand Mesa, Uncompahgre, and Gunnison (GMUG) Forests. Therefore, as Wilderness, the Whitehouse area would promote the long-term viability of large animals many of which are essential for balancing the greater region’s ecological health.
The alpine tundra of Whitehouse supports bighorn sheep, elk, deer, yellow-bellied marmot, white-tailed ptarmigan, and pica in the summer months. Due to climate change, many of high-alpine species are threatened, such as the pica. This region’s diversely forested slopes provide habitat suitable for Canada lynx (sporadic unconfirmed sightings), black bear, possibly wolverine (unconfirmed sightings), mountain lion, bobcat, fox, marten, Northern goshawk, an occasional moose, and other alpine wildlife. The Whitehouse/Beaver Creek region may have been habitat for the last of the grizzly bears documented in the Sneffels Range circa the 1930's.
This area offers challenging climbing and hiking opportunities with mixed geology and sweeping vistas, while it is still reasonably accessible from roads, trails and communities such as Ouray, Telluride, Ridgway, etc. With permanent snowfields on the north face of Mt. Sneffels, rock glaciers and perennial streams, this area is the headwaters of major streams (the Dallas drainages) and tributaries to the Uncompahgre River.
In creating the Mountains to Mesas (M2m) Conservation Management Alternative, biologists and citizens selected the 16,377-acre area described above based on its significance in protecting biological diversity and ecosystem health. The M2m plan was a 2005 proposal for the Grand Mesa, Uncompahgre, and Gunnison (GMUG) National Forest Plan Revision and is endorsed by Western Colorado Congress, High Country Citizens’ Alliance, Sheep Mountain Alliance, Southern Rockies Ecosystem Project, and San Juan Citizens Alliance.
The most recent GMUG Forest Plan proposes adding Wilderness within the same Whitehouse area, in which the Forest Service has labeled the inventoried roadless area Whitehouse Mountain Unit #54.