“A county crusade against a plan to close some roads in national forest lands north and west of Delores stalled last month…the successful appeal by Colorado Backcountry Hunters and Anglers, a group advocating for improved wildlife habitat, means the Boggy-Glade travel-management plan of the San Juan National Forest has been overturned…”

“Bob Marion, a volunteer ‘forest watchman’ for the group that filed…did so in part because road densities in the new travel plan exceeded thresholds established in the San Juan National Forest’s recently revised Resource Management Plan to protect big-game habitat…The Colorado Backcountry Hunters and Anglers group is concerned that a lack of winter refuge is a limiting factor for elk in the Boggy-Glade areas and pushes them onto private land.”

“‘The DOW has clear evidence that the elk come down to these areas in the winter, but instead of using the Boggy-Glade area as winter habitat they cross the river and move right through it because of the disturbance due to motorized traffic,’ Marion said. ‘This becomes a financial issue because the elk go from public to private land around Dove Creek, where they eat feed intended for livestock…It is an issue of protecting wildlife habitat that the forest plan specifies, because the elk cannot speak for themselves.’”