It’s that time of year when we decide which nonprofit organizations to support or give a little extra financial help. One organization in particular stands out to me: Wilderness Workshop.
Though this hardworking group is based in Carbondale, they work endlessly, without fanfare, to protect our local public lands throughout the entire White River National Forest and adjacent Bureau of Land Management lands. This includes our beloved wild places in Eagle County. They keep up on “local public land” issues and work tirelessly to protect the essence of why 99 percent of us moved to or play here.
Right now, they are pushing back against a proposed paved boulevard to the proposed Berlaimont Estates, which will cut across 4.5 miles of our National Forest above Singletree to build a private enclave for a few, while wiping out more large-animal habitat and, by extension, deer and elk herds. This proposed development already has access, but they want a boulevard, and more land for estates, to be provided by our public lands.
Wilderness Workshop has quietly done the heavy lifting for all of us for more than 50 years, identifying the issues and giving us the information we need to more easily support their efforts to make a real difference in protecting our public lands.
My dad, Bill Mounsey, was a leader for decades in the environmental movement in the west and helped establish the Wilderness Workshop to unite individuals with similar goals to create a more powerful and effective voice for “wilderness.” That need for a common voice is more important now than ever. Andy Wiessner, formerly of Vail, is on the Wilderness Workshop board and is a tireless fighter for what we all love. We can no longer take our public lands and the wildlife that live there for granted. This effort/fight takes money. I urge you to generously support the Wilderness Workshop by contributing at http://www.wildernessworkshop.org/donate or sending a contribution to Wilderness Workshop, P.O. Box 1442, Carbondale, CO 81623.
Thanks for helping out. Don’t forget to also put them on your annual giving list. We need them to be able to continue their work on our behalf for a long, long time.
Recommended Stories For You
Diana Donovan
Vail
