An enhanced land swap proposal by Bear Ranch, unanimously approved this week by the Gunnison County commissioners, could help landowner Bill Koch realize his dream of keeping his legacy ranch private.
Koch is under contract to purchase the 811-acre Buck Creek Ranch that could provide an entry point to the Ragged Mountain Trail and may appease some opponents concerned that this backcountry gem would be rendered inaccessible by the public.
Additional motorized and non-motorized trail access has been added to a package offered by the billionaire landowner that includes: 911 acres in Curecanti National Recreation Area in Gunnison County, an 80-acre inholding west of the Dinosaur National Monument Quarry Visitor Center in Utah, a 20-acre parcel adjacent to BLM lands near Paonia on Jumbo Mountain and a new trailhead to the Ragged Mountain Trail. It’s not been determined how much of Buck Creek Ranch will be available for public trail access.
The exchange is being handled through federal legislation instead of the more commonly used administrative process, which involves public hearings and an environmental review that can be lengthy.
If the legislation passes, within one year Bear Ranch would be required to provide an easement across its property so a non-motorized trail between Spring Creek and Forest Service Road 795 — that could become part of the 73-mile-long Crested Butte to Carbondale trail — would be designed and developed by Bear Ranch. It would run parallel to an existing trail.
In exchange, the billionaire could finally connect his two expansive Bear Ranch parcels by extinguishing public access off Gunnison County 2 and a 2-mile long strip of land controlled by the BLM. This access cannot be closed until Koch finishes his trail work.
Koch would receive 1,846 acres of Bureau of Land Management property plus a handful of U.S. Forest Service land contiguous to Bear Ranch.
An additional trail easement off Kebler Pass that Bear Ranch would provide isn’t directly tied to the vacating of the road.
While supportive of the Bear Ranch exchange, Gunnison County commission chair Hap Channell acknowledged this week there is “flat-out opposition” by the U.S. Forest Service to one facet of the new plan.
Ed Marston, a retired newspaper publisher sees other problems with the plan that have nothing to do with parallel trails. “The 800-acre Buck Creek Ranch is inferior to the current access, both physically (the ranch is steep and puts you in a very different part of the Ragged Mountain Basin) and ecologically. The BLM land is great elk habitat; the offered ranch is road and weed infested” and has other issues, Marston said.
But Bear Ranch manager Rob Gill said the Deep Creek trailhead, gateway to this BLM land, is barely used by residents of Paonia, which is on the North Fork of the Gunnison River.
“For the most part, that area was not known by most of the North Fork residents,” Gill said. “The road really dead-ends at Deep Creek and there is no formal trailhead or signs or anything to even know you could access the forest. “
Madeline Osberger is a reporter for Aspen Journalism, an independent nonprofit news organization working in the public interest.
