The 1993 Colorado Wilderness Act designated a 60,000-acre portion of the 114,000-acre Piedra roadless area as a special management area equivalent to wilderness in all respects other than reservation of wilderness water rights. Approximately 12,000 acres of the RARE II roadless area have been modified by timber harvest and road construction in the last twenty years. This leaves 40,000 acres of remaining roadless lands contiguous to the existing Piedra Area.
The Piedra Area and its adjacent roadless areas may be the largest expanse of contiguous, undeveloped forest remaining in Colorado. Only the nearby Hermosa Roadless Area may compare. The greater Piedra Roadless Area includes the mid-elevation stretches of the Piedra River and a half-dozen major tributaries. Piedra contains a large amount of the remaining old-growth ponderosa pine in the San Juans along the Piedra River and the lower reaches of its tributaries. River otters were successfully reintroduced into the river in the 1980s. Piedra also harbors some of the San Juan's best habitat for the northern goshawk.
The Piedra River hosts reintroduced river otters, and its tributaries provide excellent habitat for native Colorado River cutthroat trout.
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SAN JUAN CITIZENS ALLIANCE - DEDICATED
TO SOCIAL, ECONOMIC AND ENVIRONMENTAL JUSTICE IN THE SAN JUAN BASIN Durango PO Box 2461, 1022 ½ Main Ave, Durango, CO 81302 • Ph:
970-259-3583 • Fax: 970-259-8303 Cortez P.O. Box 1513, 10 West Main Street, Cortez, CO 81321 • Ph: (970) 565-7191 Farmington 108 North Behrend, Suite I, Farmington, NM 87401 • Ph:
(505) 325-6724
a special management area equivalent to wilderness in all respects other than reservation of wilderness water rights. Approximately 12,000 acres of the RARE II roadless area have been modified by timber harvest and road construction in the last twenty years. This leaves 40,000 acres of remaining roadless lands contiguous to the existing Piedra Area.