Connect Wildwood Trailhead to the Corkscrew Trail Environmental Assessment

Colorado National Monument proposes to construct a new trail that would connect the existing Wildwood trailhead to the Corkscrew trail, located at the eastern boundary of the Monument. The proposed project would involve constructing approximately 1.5 miles of trail located on lands managed by both the National Park Service and Bureau of Land Management. By constructing this permanent trail connection, the National Park Service hopes to minimize future social trailing in the area and rehabilitate the existing social trails.

This Environmental Assessment evaluates two alternatives; a no action alternative and an action alternative. The no action alternative is used as a baseline assessment, while the action alternative addresses construction of the new trail connection as well as installing signage, improving and expanding the Wildwood Trailhead, and rehabilitating unwanted social trails.

This Environmental Assessment has been prepared in compliance with the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) to provide the decision-making framework that 1) analyzes a reasonable range of alternatives to meet project objectives, 2) evaluates potential issues and impacts to Colorado National Monument’s resources and values, and 3) identifies mitigation measures to lessen the degree or extent of these impacts. Resource topics that have been addressed in this document because the resultant impacts may be greater-than-minor include soils, vegetation, visitor use and experience, and park operations. All other resource topics have been dismissed because the project would result in negligible or minor effects to those resources. No major effects are anticipated as a result of this project. Public scoping was conducted to assist with the development of this document, and the majority of respondents supported the project.

Document Content:

EA for Public Review   (882.6 KB, PDF file) Disclaimer: Links within the above document(s) were valid as of the date published. Note: Some of the files may be in PDF format and can be viewed using the Adobe Acrobat Reader software. You may download a free copy of from Adobe Systems.