"I had no idea how much forest and remote, wild country was back there," Lea Linse remarked after a recent backpacking trip through the Thompson Divide in western Colorado. Linse, a local high school student, spent three weeks in May
"I had no idea how much forest and remote, wild country was back there," Lea Linse remarked after a recent backpacking trip through the Thompson Divide in western Colorado. Linse, a local high school student, spent three weeks in May researching proposed natural gas drilling in the area. "It's a remarkable place, unlike any of the other areas we have around." Linse and three classmates interviewed stakeholders and traversed the Thompson Divide as part of their school's senior project, which often takes students to remote parts of the globe. Linse's group decided to travel just miles from their school campus, but they later echoed the surprise of many locals from the nearby Roaring Fork Valley who have begun to discover the unique features of the area through the effort to protect it. The Thompson Divide contains Colorado's largest complex of unprotected roadless lands, boasts world-class elk hunting, and is home one of the largest stands of aspen in the country. Until recently, however, it didn't get much press, even from those living along its borders. Now, five years into a local campaign to keep the fracking infrastructure out, it's emerged at the center of one of the highest profile land conservation battles in the state.
For years, the 220,000 acre area was a virtual blank spot on the community's mental map. Ranchers grazed their cattle on same lands they had used since the late 1800s. Mountain bikers, rock climbers, and hikers had favorite haunts. A dedicated group of skiers and snowboarders swiped season passes to the tiny Sunlight Mountain Resort. But nobody had heard of the Thompson Divide, nobody thought of it as a single entity. In fact, the area wasn't named until 2008 when word got out that it had been leased for drilling.
"The Thompson Divide had really been forgotten,"