THE BIG PICTURE.

Gunnison County is home to a wide variety of ecosystems – communities of animals and plants that work together. In our county, you can find rolling seas of sagebrush, one of the largest aspen forests in the world, rich forests of spruce and fir, and alpine tundra, all of which are habitat for wildlife.  It is critical to continue protecting the integrity of Colorado’s natural landscape to ensure healthy habitats that can support sustainable wildlife populations and ecosystems. 

Gunnison County is nestled in the greater Southern Rockies Ecoregion, which stretches roughly 500 miles from southern Wyoming to Northern New Mexico, and extends 250 miles from east to west at its widest point. Common wildlife species include elk, mule deer, mountain lion, and black bear. More elusive are the wolverine and lynx, but they also are found in this ecoregion. 

By designating certain public lands for no new route development, commercial timber projects, or mineral extraction, we can prevent habitat fragmentation on some of the wildest remaining lands in the Southern Rockies. Fragmenting habitat leaves smaller areas that can only support small populations, so large undeveloped lands are critical to sustain healthy populations of wildlife. 

The GORP Act would leave a lasting legacy that ensures Colorado’s natural resources and critical habitat are protected. 

HABITAT FOR A CHANGING CLIMATE.

Scientists have high confidence that in the coming two decades a warming climate will affect Gunnison County in numerous ways, including a longer growing season, increased fire frequency and intensity, decreased runoff, snowlines moving up in elevation, and an average annual temperature increase of 2-5 F°. Ecosystems that have formed over hundreds or thousands of years in specific geographic locations will either have to adapt to the new climate in place or move across the landscape as the climate changes. 

Best climate change adaptation practices, however, show that protecting large tracts of intact habitat, across elevational gradients, will help our ecosystems adapt to a warming world.

Plants and animals, already stressed by climate change, will have a lower likelihood of survival if barriers like roads or industrial development impede their movement across the landscape. 

Safeguarding a broad variety of ecosystems at differing levels of protection improves the likelihood that we will have the conservation measures in place for the ecosystems that need them the most. A portfolio of protected areas increases the chances that wildlife, plants, and communities can adapt to and withstand a changing climate.