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<br />COLORADO INITIAL WILDERNESS INVENTORY <br />SUPPLEMENTAL MAP INFORMATION <br /> <br />Inventory Units Recommended For Intensive Wilderness Inventory <br /> <br />The inventory units identified on the Colorado Initial Inventory Unit <br />Map are areas which BLM believes to have some potential for containing <br />wilderness characteristics. All other BLM administered lands (yellow <br />color on the map) are not believed to have any possibility of containing <br />wilderness characteristics. <br /> <br />Instant Wilderness Study Areas <br /> <br />Congress directed that all primitive areas and natural areas currently <br />designated and administered by BLM be inventoried and evaluated on an <br />accelerated schedule to determine their potential for wilderness desig- <br />nation. Five of these areas are located in Colorado (one primitive area <br />and four small natural areas) and are identified on the map. <br /> <br />Special Project Areas <br /> <br />I~ 1973, several environmental groups and one individual (usually <br />referenced as Natural Resource Defense Council (NRDC), et al,) filed <br />suit in Federal Court alleging that the Bureau of Land Management's <br />programmatic environmental statement on livestock grazing did not comply <br />with the requirements of NEPA (42 USC 4321 et seq,) concerning BLM's <br />administration of public lands. The court in 1975 found largely for <br />the ~aintiffs and approved an agreement between the involved parties <br />requiring completion of 212 site-specific environmental statements (ESs) <br />within specified time frames, <br /> <br />BLM in Colorado must initiate work on three of these ES's this spring <br />(1979) to meet the schedules established. These three areas are the <br />White River Area, the Gunnison Basin/American F1ats-Si1verton Area, and <br />the Royal Gorge Area. Meeting these deadlines required that resource <br />inventories be completed and sound land-use plans developed prior to <br />spring 1979 and prior to the completion of the statewide wilderness <br />inventory. ESs are based on the proposals contained within the land- <br />use plan. <br /> <br />Therefore, for the three areas listed above and identified on the Initial <br />Inventory Unit Map, advanced wilderness inventories were undertaken and <br />a number of potential wilderness study areas identified. The grazing ES's <br />will address these areas to insure that no proposals are implemented which <br />would affect Congress's prerogative for designating them as wilderness areas. <br />At this time, BLM is not making decisions (except for'the Powderhorn Instant <br />Wilderness Study Area in the Gunnison Basin Area) as to whether these poten- <br />tial wilderness study areas should be recommended to Congress for designation <br />as "Wilderness Area". <br /> <br />0966 <br />