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Adoption Status: NOT ADOPTED
7,118 acres (11.1 square miles)
How to get there
The East Willow roadless area is located about 20 miles SSE of Silt, and 20 miles SW of Carbondale. Access is best from Silt or Glenwood Springs.
- From Glenwood Springs, take Garfield County Road 117 to Sunlight Ski Area. The road becomes Thompson Creek Road (FS 300). Follow signs to Haystack Gate, where you must get onto West Divide Creek Road (FS 800; high clearance necessary) and go southwest toward Haystack Mountain. Just after crossing West Divide Ck, you can get on FS 808 (to your left), and take this rugged road up to the ridge that divides West Divide Ck from East Muddy Ck to the south. Or, hike through the unit on the Jones Creek Trail (1901).
- From Silt, go south on County Road 331 and eventually take a left on West Divide Creek Road (CR 344; high clearance). This becomes FS 800 at the forest boundary, and leads you directly to Haystack Mountain, with the roadless area to the south.
- The 4WD Texas Hill Road (FS8 841) climbs over the divide on the western boundary of the unit, and connects to FS 265 on the other side. From here, Owens Creek Road (FS 268) enters the Willow Creek drainage on the southern boundary.
- The USGS 7 1⁄2’ quads for East Willow RA are Quaker Mesa, Elk Knob, Flatiron Mountain, and Spruce Mountain.
Setting
East Willow roadless area occupies rolling terrain on the north side of the divide between the Colorado and Gunnison River basins. The hills feature spruce/fir forest, but are more impressive for their extensive aspen stands. The area contains all three branches of Willow Creek, which are the headwaters for West Divide Creek. The elevation here ranges from 7,800 feet down at East Willow Ck to 10,000 feet on the divide.
What’s special about it?
The East Willow area is prime elk habitat, and is an important area for hunters. The aspen forests are calving ground for the elk. This area is part of a much larger roadless complex that includes the Clear Creek area on the Gunnison National Forest, and the Thompson Creek/Baldy Mountain/Reno Mountain/Hayes Creek roadless areas on the WRNF. This 125,000 acre roadless complex is the largest unprotected roadless, wild area in the state. Importantly, it serves as a rare mid-elevation wildland corridor that links the high Elk Range with Grand Mesa to the west.
Potential threats
This area receives heavy use, especially by hunters in the fall. There is a problem in this area with illegal off-road vehicle use. Given its remoteness and the USFS’s lack of law enforcement capacity, bandit road creation is a significant threat to the integrity of the area. Currently, there is a proposal to run a natural gas pipeline through the unit and change the management plan zoning from wildlife habitat to utility corridor. This would bifurcate the East Willow RA, destroying much of its wild character. Advocates should request that the WRNF locate the pipeline where it will not impact roadless areas. The area is also threatened by natural gas development and portions of it are already leased. Roadless advocates should request that any development of the existing leases require No Surface Occupancy stipulations. Existing leases should also be allowed to expire at the end of the current lease term. No new parcels in this roadless area should be leased.
Other info
Conservation groups have identified another 773 acres of roadless area that the WRNF inappropriately excluded from its inventory (see map). When combined with the Clear Creek, Reno Mountain, Baldy Mountain, Thompson Creek, Assignation Ridge, and Hayes Creek roadless areas, the size of the resulting roadless complex is over 120,000 acres (187 square miles)!
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