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, 0007;)7 WEST ELK WILDERNESS GUNNISON NATIONAL FOREST Located entirely within the Gunnison National Forest, the West Elk Wilderness of 61,412 acres was established on January 12, 1932, as the West Elk Primitive Area. It has been a unit of the National Wilderness Preservation System since the Wilderness Act of September 3, 1964, was enacted. Forest Supervisor J. V. Leighou recommended establishment of the Primitive Area under Regulation L-20 on October 27, 1931. The dates entered on the Rocky Mountain Region's copy of the original report and management plan indicate that Allen S. Peck, Regional Forester, approved the report on February 25, 1932, although Forest Service Chief R. Y. Stuart gave final approval on January 12 of the same year-a month earlier. Possibly the last two dates were transposed in making the file copies. Supervisor Leighou noted that the Engelmann spruce stands covering about 15,000 acres of the Primitive Area were of good quality but currently inaccessible. He stated, in accordance with the Regulation L-20 provisions, that the timber resources should be, ". . .harvested as demand developes. . .," but, ". . .in any event would be about the last stand in the Forest to be logged. No activity in this regard can be foreseen within the next twenty-five years." The needs of big game, particularly deer and elk, were emphasized in Leighou's report. "Range management plans at the present time provide for the exclusion of domestic livestock from a large portion of the area and reserve it for wildlife," he said, adding that approximately 5,000 head of sheep graze the remaining portion of the area during the summer months. Although the subsequent Forest Service "U" Regulations for Wilderness and Wild Areas eliminated the possible commercial timber harvest for the classified areas, grazing domestic livestock was considered compatible with the wilderness concept and has carried forward into the 1964 Wilderness Act as a permitted use in designated Wilderness. Leighou felt no real possibilities for development of hydroelectric power or irrigation reservoirs existed and he noted that, "The area has been quite thoroughly prospected for minerals. No values have ever been discovered." He added that coal deposits might be present. Interesting in 1974 is the statement in the report, "No expression of public sentiment has been secured on the proposed primitive area, but expressions have been heard that would indicate that its creation would be welcome." Evidently, in those Depression years of the early 1930's, little public enthusiasm for wilderness management as a part of the National Forest pattern of land use existed. However, in spite of the lack of public support, Leighou's feelings for the intangible thing that is Wilderness-in 1931 and in 1974-show in his report. He said: "The West Elk Primitive Area is. . . one of the last frontiers of the Gunnison region. . . . I t is remote. . . . I t has not been marred. . .. I t is the summer range of deer and elk and some mountain sheep. . .it is likewise an almost virgin field from the standpoint of biological research," and, "The area embraces a number of high mountain ranges; viz. Mt.