March 10, 2023 – FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: Grant Stevens, Communications Director, grant@wildernessworkshop.org; 319-427-0260 (Cell)
Today, the White River National Forest released a signed Record of Decision for the Berlaimont Estates Road Improvement Project, which will approve a damaging paved road through sensitive wildlife habitat. The Project facilitates a developer’s plan to build 19 new mansions on 680 acres in the middle of the White River National Forest. The Decision represents the Forest Service’s approval of a year-round access road, paving wild public lands to facilitate sprawl in the backcountry.
“Throughout this process, it has become abundantly clear how unreasonable Berlaimont Estates really is. Thousands of people opposed the project in comments, formal objections, and by actively marching in protest. Whether it’s due to the impact on declining wildlife populations, because it will put more people and expensive homes in the path of wildfire, or because the development is so much more grandiose than what typifies inholdings—this approval sets a terrible precedent. Today’s decision fails to protect public lands and wildlife, while ignoring the public and defying logical consideration of the record.” – Peter Hart, Wilderness Workshop Legal Director
“In a time where wildlife populations are declining, habitat connectivity is increasingly fragmented, and the human impact on the environment is undeniable; constructing mega-mansions in the middle of our national forest lands is wrong. We are disappointed the Forest Service has made an access decision that will perpetuate this harm.” – ” Matt Sandler, Rocky Mountain Wild Legal Director
For years, a wide range of advocates have raised concerns that the road would cut through some of the last best winter wildlife habitat in the Eagle Valley, reducing deer and elk populations that are already in dramatic decline. The project flies in the face of deep community opposition (over 4,200 community members signed a petition) and the Biden-Harris Administration’s efforts to tackle the climate crisis by “…deploying the full capacity of (federal) agencies to conserve our lands, waters, and biodiversity; sequestering carbon in soils, grasses, trees and other vegetation; and the goal of conserving at least 30 percent of our lands and waters by 2030.”
“The situation for local wildlife populations is dire. We can’t keep approving new roads and development in sensitive habitat and expect wildlife to persist. The dramatic population declines we’ve witnessed are a result of those same decisions,” said former district wildlife manager for the Colorado Division of Wildlife and 50-year Eagle Valley resident, Bill Heicher. “In the long term, the paved road, additional developed recreation, new parking lots and the new subdivision will directly destroy important habitat and encourage far deeper penetration into a fragile ecosystem that barely sustains the native species today. In short, the Forest Service is creating a sacrifice zone in Edwards for development and recreation. To most of us, that is unreasonable and unacceptable.”
“We are in a 22-year drought, one of the two driest periods in the last 1,200 years. If a wildfire sparked near a new luxury Berlaimont home, firefighters, such as my own daughter-in-law, would likely be called to the remote site,” said retired biology teacher and longtime Eagle Valley Resident Christie Hochtl. “I would hate to see her lose her life saving a home that should have never been built in the first place. Putting these homes high up on a fire prone hillside, at the end of the road, so far from first responders, is a bad idea. However, fire risk is just one of the issues that makes this project so unreasonable.”
Wilderness Workshop has been engaged in the fight to stop the Berlaimont Access Road for over 10 years – working with passionate community members to organize opposition, gathering support from elected officials and decision-makers, and engaging in the public process at every point possible. After the Final Environmental Impact Statement (FEIS) was released in 2020, dozens of engaged community members filed formal objections to the plan and the agency’s analysis. Objections are available for review here.
“Perhaps the biggest problem with this proposal, raised by nearly everyone who has engaged, is the impact it will have on the wildlife. Winter habitat is a limiting resource for deer and elk populations. They need it to survive Colorado’s coldest and snowiest months,” said Tim Wolf, a hunter, small business owner, and founder of a local group called “Friends for Wildlife.” “Today the Forest Service gave a greenlight to a new road through critical winter range for a luxury subdivision that’ll require hundreds of vehicle trips every day, year round. It is like a stake through the heart of some of the last best habitat we’ve got in the valley. It is bad policy and bad precedent.”
“The Forest Service completely ignored the public and their own land management plan in making this decision,” said Andy Wiessner, who helped circulate a petition against the project that was signed by more than 4000 local residents. “For the Forest Service to defy nearly unanimous public opposition and allow a paved road in prime deer and elk winter range is beyond troubling and confounding. It reflects a public be damned attitude.”
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Wilderness Workshop is a nonprofit organization that protects the wilderness, water, and wildlife of Western Colorado’s public lands. Learn more at WildernessWorkshop.org
Rocky Mountain Wild is a nonprofit environmental organization based in Denver, CO, that is focused on protecting, connecting, and restoring wildlife and wild lands in the Southern Rocky Mountain region. Learn more at RockyMountainWild.org
Page Header Image: Sunrise looking out over the Eagle River Valley from the Berlaimont Estates area. Photo Courtesy Jon Mullen/Ecostock.
