Proposed upgrade of road draws fire

Proposed upgrade of road draws fire

May 8, 2001

By Janelle Holden
Journal Staff Writer

A proposal to upgrade a road in a so-called roadless area within the San Juan National Forest has drawn the ire of several environmental groups.

The U.S. Forest Service is currently compiling an environmental-impact statement on a proposal to reconstruct U.S. Forest Service Road 205 south of the Lizard Head Wilderness from a low-standard forest road to a single-lane gravel road made to Forest Service specifications.

But both the environmental groups and the owners of the 320-acre inholding that the road accesses say the Forest Service’s specifications require a road much larger than needed.

Bernt Kuhlmann, co-owner of Dunton LLC, said his partner, Khristoph Henkel, bought the property in 1998 to save it from a proposed subdivision.

Henkel has been asking for an easement to upgrade the road to his property for the past two years, and Kuhlmann said the two are as frustrated as the environmental groups are with the Forest Service. "All we wanted to do is build a two-track trail in there, which can be used by car."

But the Forest Service says Kuhlmann’s plans to build a cabin and outbuildings on the property require a gravel road to sustain the use.

"Our concerns of course would be that the road standards sustain the use on the road," said John Reidinger, a lands and mineral forester at the Dolores Ranger Station.

The inholding is only five miles away from Kuhlmann and Henkel’s high-end resort in Dunton.

"We don’t want to put a big fat scar in the area," said Kuhlmann. "We could build this cabin — even with smaller trucks. We are into extremely low-intensity development. We canceled an entire subdivision because it was too much density. That’s why Dunton has basically not changed since we bought it."

Henkel plans to construct a cabin and several outbuildings on the Dunton Meadows property for his own personal use. It will not be used to develop another high-end resort like the town of Dunton, according to Kuhlmann, and will quite likely be protected with a conservation easement.

U.S. Forest Service Road 205 is an offshoot of the Dunton Road near Coal Creek. The nearly mile-long road has been closed to the public for almost 10 years because people were using it to go off-road on sensitive wilderness areas.

The Sheep Mountain Alliance and San Juan Citizens Alliance have asked the Forest Service to analyze a more primitive road alternative, such as a minimal two-track road.

"The access required for a couple of seasonal cabins is quite different than the access necessary for a potential higher-density, year-round resort," the Sheep Mountain Alliance wrote.

Both alliances asked the Forest Service to consider asking Dunton LLC to swap the inholding for land closer to their Dunton property.

A land exchange is not out of the question for either the owners or the Forest Service.

"If they were willing to trade that to the government, we would be very interested, obviously, in seeing what could be worked out," said Reidinger.

By law the Forest Service is required to provide the owners with reasonable access; it’s just a question of how and where, according to Reidinger.

"We clearly urge the lightest footprint on the land that is possible and consistent with providing reasonable access," wrote Mark Pearson of the San Juan Citizen’s Alliance. "Our biggest concern is the open-endedness of the access grant."

The San Juan Citizens Alliance cited the effect a new road and the possible development that could occur will have on the area’s wetlands, the visual impacts future recreationists would encounter, and the impact on future lynx habitat, air quality, water quality, utilities, and habitat fragmentation.

"Our preference would be to see that land end up in the forest service’s hands, undeveloped in the national forest either by purpose or exchange," said Pearson.

Pearson’s comments were also signed by the Four Corners Wilderness Society, the High Country Citizens’ Alliance, the Aspen Wilderness Workshop, and the Sierra Club — as well as several other groups. The Forest Service received approximately 15 comments, almost all negative.

The initial public-comment period for the proposal ended on May 1. If the project is approved, construction could begin this fall on the property.