A coalition of local citizens, conservation groups and businesses recently unveiled a plan for the management of the 2-million-acre San Juan National Forest. Now the U.S. Forest Service needs to decide if the plan is a viable alternative.

The 132-page document – called The Citizens Plan for the Wild San Juans – was the culmination of a five-year effort by the San Juan Citizens Alliance involving more than a dozen people and 1,000 working hours.

Under the plan, the amount of land classified as wilderness would be doubled. Sustainable, traditional economic activities like small-scale logging and grazing would be allowed, however.

Locally, the plan proposes very little change to the existing uses of the west end of the forest. According to Mark Pearson, an alliance staff member, the group supports continuation of pine zone restoration projects, and has suggested cultural resource protection around McPhee reservoir.

They have also recommended wilderness designation for the 20,000 acre Stoner Mesa roadless area north of Cortez and along the Dolores river.

Sufficient habitat would also be protected to return native species like lynx and wolverine, as well as for potentially surviving populations of grizzly bears in the South San Juans.

"This plan would protect the last undeveloped lower-elevation forests of aspen and ponderosa pine," said Pearson.

Keeping the Stoner Mesa area roadless may hurt the timber industry, considering it is at an elevation area of 8,000 to 9,000 feet with prime aspen growth.

"The best aspen is on federal land between 7,500 and 9,000 feet elevation," said Charlie Mitchell, owner of of the Western Excelsior Plant in Mancos, during an interview May 10. "There is very little private land with aspen that is available to us. More restriction just multiplies the problem for me and my employees."

Pearson readily admits that the traditional timber industries will probably not support the plan, but the group does have the support of many smaller logging operations.

Congress mandated the Forest Service to update its stewardship policies through the 1976 National Forest Management Act. The Forest Service now revises its forest management plan every 10 to 15 years, considering a number of options before making decisions on land-use allocations for logging, oil and gas leasing, and recreation.

Because of disputes over these allocations nationwide, Congress told the Forest Service in 1998 to temporarily halt planning. Once the moratorium is lifted, the alliance’s plan will be one of these options for the San Juan National Forest.

The San Juan National Forest’s management plan was created in the mid-1980s, with a major revision in 1992. Thurman Wilson, the San Juan Forest’s planning team leader, said he hopes the 2001 budget will include money to resume the planning process.

The coalition met with the forest service in December to discuss the plan. Pearson said that the group may make changes to the plan once it is made into a real alternative.

Ann Bond, spokeswoman for the San Juan National Forest, said citizens’ alternatives for managing national forests are not always environmentally oriented, and they are not usually adopted as the preferred management plan.

Still, a citizens’ plan such as the alliance’s has much to offer, Bond said.

"They put a lot of hard work into this and they have a lot of data. When people put that many years into such an effort, they offer us valuable information and valuable perspective," Bond said.

Before the 1998 moratorium by Congress, public working groups that cut across the political spectrum had already looked at revisions to the San Juan Forest, Bond said.

Pearson said the public needs to be involved in the process, regardless of delays, because of the high stakes involved.

"What the Forest Service decides will have major consequences on protecting backcountry recreation, wildlife, scenery and many of the things people care about," Pearson said.

Brett Gosney, chairman of the alliance’s public lands task force, said the plan seeks to strike a balance between the radical ends of the political spectrum; between clear-cutting the land and fencing 2 million acres as off-limits.

The plan has been endorsed by numerous environmental and business groups, and arrives on the 25th anniversary of the creation of the Weminuche Wilderness.

In 1993, Gosney went to then-forest supervisor Jim Webb and asked to include a citizens alternative. It was a very contentious time for the San Juan National Forest, Gosney said, with protests arising from large timber sales near Pagosa Springs.

"People were blockading roads, chaining themselves to trees, standing in front of chain saws," Gosney said.

Gosney said a deal was made with Webb: Include the citizens alternative to managing the forest, and the conservation community would speak with one voice through the alliance.

There was also a precedent; the Colorado Environmental Coalition had successfully included a citizens alternative for the Arapahoe-Roosevelt and Routt National Forests.

"We bit off quite a bit," Gosney said. "There were a lot of organizations involved, everything from Earth-Firsters to cattle groups."

Negotiations among the alliance meant sacrificing one sacred environmental cow, the concept of unlimited recreation.

Gosney said recreation had long been viewed as the solution to land-management problems, but then the outdoor recreation boom hit in the 1990s.

"Now, industrial-sized recreation is as big a threat as industrial logging," Gosney said.

In response, people now want a multiple-use ethic, Gosney said.

"People want healthy lands and healthy communities, not just a play area," Gosney said.

Pearson said over half of the San Juan National Forest’s 2 million acres has been developed in the past century. What’s left is the largest unprotected roadless area in the Southern Rockies, just north of Durango in the Hermosa Creek watershed.

Under the alliance’s plan, 113,709 acres in the watershed would be designated as wilderness in two units. Overall, wilderness areas in the San Juan forest would almost double, from 482,710 acres to 937,133 acres.

The alliance’s plan would allow traditional, small-scale logging instead of the forest service’s historical emphasis on large-scale industrial logging.

Janine Fitzgerald, owner of a horse-logging business near Bayfield, said this allows a multi-use ethic which encourages sustainable economics.