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Photo from David Boyd
Right after finishing a rafting trip down the Grand Canyon in September, Cindy Ebbert got some good news.
Ebbert, an employee with the Dillon Ranger District of the White River National Forest, found out she was being recognized nationally for her wilderness expertise and her contributions to maintaining local wilderness.
The U.S. Forest Service awarded Ebbert the Traditional Skills and Minimum Tools Leadership Award, which recognizes someone who “demonstrates outstanding commitment to wilderness principles using traditional, nonmotorized equipment and hand tools” within the department, according to a news release.
“There’s a lot of amazing folks with the Forest Service who helped manage our wilderness areas, so I felt very fortunate to receive this award as a wilderness manager myself,” Ebbert said.
Photo by Tim Drescher / Eagle Summit Wilderness Alliance
Summit and Eagle counties are fortunate to have lots of public land that we can enjoy and on which we can recreate. That is why we live here.
Most of these lands are in the White River National Forest. Some special areas of the national forest are designated and managed as wilderness areas, including the Eagles Nest, Ptarmigan Peak and Holy Cross wilderness areas.
So what are wilderness areas, how do they differ from the rest of the national forest, and why are they important?
Wilderness areas are federally owned lands designated by Congress in accordance with the 1964 Wilderness Act to be part of the National Wilderness Preservation System. Only Congress can designate a wilderness area. Eagles Nest was designated by Congress in 1976, Holy Cross in 1980 and Ptarmigan Peak in 1993. Wilderness areas are the creme de la creme of our public lands: 36% of Colorado land is federally owned but only 3% is designated as wilderness.