Increased backcountry tourism sparks local conservation efforts

According to the Colorado Tourism Office, since 2009, Colorado has seen a 41 percent increase in tourism, double the national average, totaling 86 million visitors in 2017. Many of those travelers are ending up in Gunnison County. However, an increase in visitors means impacts to this fragile high-alpine resource are inevitable, exacerbated by the fact that many of the tourists who come to use the high country lack knowledge of how to protect it. Local organizations in Gunnison County are working to ensure that visitors are educated about how to use and preserve these delicate ecosystems, as Ashley UpChurch, executive director of the Crested Butte/Mount Crested Butte Chamber of Commerce explained. “We want to make sure that we’re educating those tourists that we’re bringing in and making sure they’re treating our backcountry appropriately as we’re bringing them in to help our economy,” said Upchurch. To kickstart the process, the Chamber and the U.S. Forest Service placed eight porta-potties at high-traffic trailheads surrounding Crested Butte. The hope was that they would cut down on the amount of human waste in the woods. Human waste that organizations, like the Crested Butte Conservation Corps (CBCC), must haul back to town sanitation facilities. The CBCC was founded two years ago by the Crested Butte Mountain Bike Association (CBMBA). “There was a huge void or lapse, if you will, in terms of [being] underresourced, understaffed there in the backcountry, and we as mountain bikers feel a very strong sense of obligation to conservation and we took it upon ourselves to start the CBCC,” said David Ochs, director of CBMBA. Photo: Descending Purple Mountain on the Ruby Range Traverse, one of many recreational destinations in Gunnison County. Credit Mark Robbins