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f!1I~~" JJ~v31 III. AFFECTED ENVIRCNMENT A. WILDERNESS RESOURCE A Wilderness Attribute Rating System (WARS) was developed during the P~RE II process to evaluate the characteristics of roadless areas, using criteria which contributes to wilderness capability, as defined in the Wilderness Act of 1964. In the RARE II process, the Oh-Be-Joyful area was rated as a part of the Raggeds Roadless Area. The total Wilderness Attribute Rating for that larger area was 23 - a rating within the top 8% of all the Colorado roadless areas analyzed in the RARE II study. Using WARS, the interdisciplinary study team rated the Oh-Be-Joyful Wilderness Study Area as iI part of the review documented here. The details of that analysis are in Appendix A. Table III-l is a sununary of the ratings (see Section lEI for a definition of the individual rating components) . TABLE III-l Summary-Wilderness Attrlbute Rating Oh-Be-Joyful Wilderness Study Area Attribute -- Influence on Natural Integrity Influence on AI,parent Naturalness Solitude Opportunity Primitive RecrEation Opportunity Composite Wilderness Attribute Score Supplementary Wilderness Attributes TOTAL Rating 6 Very Little 6 Very Little 4 Madera te 5 High 21 2 Infrequent 23 The study team rated the wilderness capability of tIe Oh-Be-Joyfd Wilderness Study Area as 23 - the same total rating given to the R?-ggeds area during RAFE II. Though the total ratirgs are the S2.me, the individual component ratings vary due to differEnces in size, character, and degree of past activity in the two aJeas rated. Four existing designatej wilderness areas are accesfible from th2 Upper Gunnison River Valley (above the Town of Gunnison). These serve the same general population centers and user groups. In this area, wilderness acreage incr,~ased 463,900 acres with the enactment of the Colorado Wilderness Act in 1980. The wildernesses total 596,372 acres and are summarized in Table III-3. 18