There’s a table in my living room, a wedding gift to a neighbor, actually, deemed too “rustic” by his wife for their décor. For the moment, it’s considered borrowed, although a few more spaghetti dinners in front of the TV soon should tilt the scales of ownership in my favor.
The handcrafted table is built around a relief map of the U.S. Geological Survey’s Leadville district, circa 1975. Thatched with tall peaks, rivers and roadways, the most prominent feature beneath the glass tabletop is the White River National Forest spilling over the map’s border. Stretching from the Grand Hogback south of Meeker in the upper left corner, to the Gore Range separating Summit and Eagle counties on the right, I imagine a table built around the entirety of the White River forest alone might someday allow me to host dinner guests.
Spanning about 2.3 million acres and supporting a dozen ski areas, White River is the largest national forest in Colorado and far and away the most visited in the nation. Take away the 7 million skiers who flock to the likes of Vail, Aspen and Breckenridge every year, and the remaining 2.7 million visitors still qualify White River among the 10 most heavily traveled national forests, according to U.S. Forest Service surveys.
It is arguably our state’s most valuable recreational resource, encompassing large segments of the Colorado River along with the Eagle, Roaring Fork, Fryingpan, Crystal and others. The mighty Sawatch Range, home to the highest concentration of 14,000-foot peaks in the nation, is found within its boundaries, as are the rugged Elk Mountains near Aspen and the scenic Flat Tops south of Steamboat.
As it is for so many of us, that diversity is what drew Maribeth Gustafson to White River National Forest, where she took the reins as forest supervisor a little more than a month ago.
“This is an outdoor-oriented state known for healthy people who enjoy the outdoors,” Gustafson said recently. “I label that as ‘recreation,’ and that’s a lot of the reason I came here. That’s how I live my life, too.”
A dedicated hiker who enjoys skiing, horseback riding and the occasional mountain bike ride, Gustafson, 49, has 24 years with the service under her belt. She began as a botanist with a degree from San Diego State and worked the past five years as a supervisor of the Lake Tahoe Basin Management Unit in California. Her background and appreciation for Colorado’s “culture of recreation” provides qualification in undertaking the task of managing the diverse resources of the White River National Forest at a challenging point in its history.
Among Gustafson’s priorities are meeting the ever-increasing recreational demands of the growing Front Range population while addressing the more traditional issues of forest health and wildfires, cattle and sheep grazing, mining and a growing number of drilling proposals within her jurisdiction. On top of that, 640,000 acres of roadless land within the White River National Forest recently were placed in regulatory limbo by a presidential ruling that overturned rules protecting it.
Should Gov. Bill Owens recommend, the new rule could allow road building, mining and logging in areas of the forest where motor vehicles are now banned.
“We have pretty much the full gamut of uses allowed here,” Gustafson said. “I think it will be a challenge to keep a balance. My job is to support the administration we’re serving, as well as the public at large.”
The Forest Resource Management Plan, revised three years ago to provide a blueprint for land use in the White River National Forest, allows for some logging and other uses that could open the door to roads, industrial uses and motorized access in previously protected areas.
“Not to discount other uses, but we are uniquely situated to provide recreation here in the White River National Forest,” Gustafson said. “We have it all.”
With any luck, that philosophy will help maintain the White River National Forest as the outdoor recreational mecca that it is, and not the wasteland of natural gas wells, mines and logging roads that President Bush’s new ruling potentially provides for.
Just like my forest, I like my table. And I would sure hate to try to get a new one.
