Editor’s note: This is the first story in a two-part series from Aspen Journalism about the management of the North Star Nature Preserve east of Aspen. This story examines a potential land exchange that could be complicated by a mining claim, while the second story looks at past management, recent studies and what’s next for North Star.
Land near an access point to the North Star Nature Preserve is being evaluated as a potential site for a gold mine, as Pitkin County Open Space and Trails is beginning the process of updating the area’s management plan and considering a potential land exchange with the U.S. Forest Service.
A local family, long involved in efforts to protect North Star’s ecosystem, has held a mining claim on Forest Service land near Wildwood Lane and south of McFarland Lane for decades and in August filed a notice of intent to conduct mineral exploration for gold. The claim sits on 17.4 acres of public land near the Wildwood Lane put-in, which thousands of paddleboarders and boaters use to access a flat section of the Roaring Fork River and float through the downstream North Star Nature Preserve, which is owned and managed by Pitkin County Open Space and Trails.
Elizabeth Boyles, who lives on Wildwood Lane, filed a notice of intent (NOI) with the Forest Service that identified her intention to begin mineral exploration on the Goff Placer mining claim.
The document is currently under review by the Forest Service, which owns and manages the surface land, and the Bureau of Land Management, which oversees subsurface minerals. Aspen Journalism obtained a copy of the notice of intent, with maps of the specific area redacted; determining the claim’s precise boundaries is part of the ongoing review. However, information about the claim, including a map, on a BLM website shows that its northeast portion abuts part of Wildwood Lane near the put-in.
“We are reviewing the legal descriptions, surveys, whether they are other encumbrances, things like that,” said David Boyd, public affairs officer for the White River National Forest. He said there is not currently a timeline for that process, but if mineral exploration, including any potential test drilling, moves forward, a plan of operations and a review under the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) would be required.
The property on which the claim sits has a long history of complex management, and Pitkin County Open Space and Trails has recently been in discussion with the Forest Service about arranging a land exchange that would pass ownership and management authority of a parcel near the Wildwood School that includes the put-in to the county to facilitate tighter management, including potentially limiting recreational use, of North Star.
Although the Forest Service owns the land at the put-in, Pitkin County Open Space and Trails currently has agreements to manage the Wildwood Lane parking area and permits commercial operators to use the nature preserve from the Wildwood put-in.
The stretch of river that is one of the area’s most heavily used summer recreation destinations flows through private property, land owned by the local nonprofit Aspen Center for Environmental Studies, and public land owned by the county, the city of Aspen and the federal government.
“Our intention with filing the NOI on the mining claim is to establish additional documentation of our rights to the mining claim so that we can have a seat at the table when a land exchange is discussed,” members of the Boyles family said in a statement prepared for Aspen Journalism.
Commercial operations and competing objectives
The Boyles family and other concerned citizens say that because Open Space and Trails has permitted additional commercial operations in the last eight years, the county is failing to meet the terms — or at least the spirit — of the 2002 conservation easement, held by Aspen Valley Land Trust, that protects the nature preserve.
The language in the conservation easement states that it is meant to preserve and protect “the natural, ecological, wildlife habitat, scenic, open space, recreational and aesthetic features and values” of North Star.
“It challenges the landowner to manage the property in a way that supports community access and recreation while also protecting wildlife habitat and a delicate riparian ecosystem,” Bud Tymczyszyn, stewardship director for AVLT, wrote in an email. “Striking a balance between recreational and wildlife conservation values is tricky work that takes finesse and constant adaptation over the years as conditions and pressures change.”
The conservation easement requires that “no amendments or changes to the management plan may increase the type or intensity of recreational, commercial, or public use beyond what is specified in the existing management plan.”
The management plan referenced was written in 2000; that plan permitted one commercial paragliding operator and one commercial kayaking/canoeing operator to use the North Star open space.
The document didn’t provide guidance or limitations around how many users those commercial businesses could bring to the area. Updates to the plan in 2015 and 2020 have allowed for an unlimited number of commercial operators to apply for a permit to use the Wildwood put-in to access the river, and limited group size to six per launch with one launch allowed an hour.
Commercial clients accounted for 27% of river users in 2023, up from 15% in 2018 and in 2019. Last year, there were 12 permits issued to commercial operators, eight of which the county considered “active” permits. Commercial permits peaked in 2022 at 16, nine of which were active. In 2016, the county permitted six commercial operators, all of which were active.
River use varies year to year, with weather, runoff and wild cards such as global pandemics all playing a role in how many people show up to float North Star. On the whole, though, both public and commercial use continues to rise, and some concerned neighbors say this shows that the county’s strategy of increasing commercial permits while applying stronger regulations on the operators has not worked.
In December, Pitkin County commissioners directed Open Space and Trails to limit the number of commercial operators to five in an attempt to address the intensity of use. Those five businesses remain limited to one launch per hour and six people in each party.
Morgan Boyles, a son of Edgar and Elizabeth Boyles and the director of the Alfred A. Braun Hut System, spoke at the joint meeting of the Pitkin County Board of County Commissioners (BOCC) and the Open Space and Trails Board in December and explained that commercial operators have increased use because they drop off paddlers when the small parking lot on Wildwood Lane is already full of personal vehicles.
“Once the parking lot is full, no more people can come,” Boyles said. “Whereas when a commercial user comes in, they can just drop off from their van and shuttle people through.”
Boyles and others contend that commercial operations at North Star are in conflict with the conservation easement and the resource management plan from 2000.
“I do actually think that commercial use does increase the use levels on the preserve, and I think it is worth remembering that it was not in the original intention of the nature preserve,” Boyles said at the joint Open Space and Trails and BOCC meeting.
The county and AVLT maintain that management of the preserve has been in line with the founding documents, and the county is not in violation of the terms of the conservation easement. As standup paddleboarding became ever more popular, so did the social media-influenced lifestyle that brought extra publicity and an explosion in visitors to the area.
Tymczyszyn said management plans in 2015 and 2020 that allowed for more commercial businesses to operate in the preserve were consistent with the conservation easement. Although those plans allowed for more operators, they also placed new restrictions on the numbers of river users those businesses could host.
“AVLT has been impressed by the level of study, restoration work and commitment that Pitkin County and other partners have invested over the years at North Star, and we look forward to that study and refinement continuing,” Tymczyszyn wrote in the email. “We are, however, increasingly concerned about impacts from recreational use at the preserve, and we are excited to explore new ways to better manage use and reduce impacts.”
Pitkin County Open Space and Trails staff are gathering data, now and through the summer, to update the management plan, which according to the conservation easement is required to take place every five years.
Paddle permit potential
As the community continues to look for ways to both protect North Star and provide for the public’s enjoyment of it, Open Space and Trails staffers say there’s a clear next step that would allow for better management.
“If people want less congestion on the river, we’re going to have to talk about limiting not just commercial use, we’re going to have to talk about limiting all use,” said Dale Will, the former Pitkin County Open Space and Trails director who now serves as the department’s acquisitions and projects director.
The majority of river use at North Star comes from private individuals and groups, not from commercial operators. Since 2020, commercial operators have accounted for between 20% to 33% of river users. The remainder — thousands of visitors each year — are not paying a commercial business to shuttle them.
Most permit systems that limit public access to public lands in Colorado have focused on overnight use.
There aren’t many models of programs in which day use on a river is limited. Boaters are required to pull permits for both day and overnight use on the stretch of the John Day River in central Oregon that is designated Wild and Scenic. But there are key differences: the stretch of John Day is significantly longer (between 7 and 35 miles) than the North Star area; it is designated Wild and Scenic; and it is not close to any large cities or towns.
Will and Open Space and Trails director Gary Tennenbaum contend that to reduce crowding and intensity of use on the river, the county would have to start permitting private individuals.
“The only possible way to get there is if the county has jurisdiction over put-in as well as the takeout,” Will said.
The county already owns the land where floaters take out of the river. Both the county and the Forest Service say a land exchange that would transfer ownership of acreage surrounding the put-in from the federal government to Pitkin County would allow for more-efficient management under one agency, Pitkin County Open Space and Trails.
“Exchanging those lands with Pitkin County would be an opportunity for better long-term management of Wildwood,” said Jennifer Schuller, acting district ranger for Aspen/Sopris Ranger District.
Pitkin County has not yet submitted a formal application to the Forest Service. Any land exchange would undergo a yearslong process and include review of valid existing rights on the property to be exchanged, including mining claims.
Documents propose gold prospecting near Wildwood Lane
The Boyles family, who own the Goff Placer mining claim, want to be sure they are included in discussions of the land exchange, which they feel is unnecessary.
“We see no reason for a complicated and expensive land exchange,” they wrote in a statement. “We believe that the best steward of this area is the USFS because any changes to land use would need to go through a thorough environmental review (NEPA and EIS).”
If the Forest Service were to make any changes to its land encompassing the put-in — from a bigger parking lot to a permit system — the agency would be required to conduct yearslong, intensive reviews that include several rounds of public comment. Pitkin County Open Space and Trails would likely engage in public comment and a public process as well, but it would not be required to follow the exact steps included in a NEPA analysis.
The mining claim, first purchased by Edgar Boyles in 1980, is in an area that had historically been run as a gravel pit. The Boyles family worked to rehabilitate the land, revegetating the barren area with native grasses and wildflowers and pulling noxious weeds, the family said.
Notice of intent documents filed in August with the Forest Service explain that the family’s intent is to “complete placer gold prospecting and exploration activities on the Goff Placer claim in the White River National Forest. Sampling will be completed to identify the potential placer gold resource at the site using sonic drilling.”
The Boyleses have proposed three sample drilling sites, each of which requires a 5-foot-square drill pad.
“Drilling will be to the bedrock, which is estimated to be roughly 15 feet below the surface. The material extracted from drilling will be transported off site to a lab to classify the mineral contact throughout the columns,” the Goff Placer mineral exploration plan detailed in the NOI reads. The document proposed beginning exploration “as soon as possible,” but the Forest Service and Bureau of Land Management need to approve the plan and conduct some level of NEPA analysis.
The plan includes details for revegetating the drill pads after the samples are taken.
The NOI does not include details about actual mining processes. There are two types of mining claims: lode and placer. BLM documents explain that lode claims “cover veins or lodes with well-defined boundaries that include other rock-in-place bearing valuable mineral deposits.”
Placer claims, like the Goff Placer near Wildwood, “cover all those deposits not subject to lode claims” and include sand and gravel that contain gold or other minerals.
Placer mining can be open-pit or use excavating machinery, and the idea of a gold mine near North Star is difficult for those involved in its management to imagine.
“Gold mines are messy, messy things,” Will said. “To plunk one down upstream of the North Star Nature Preserve is kind of a shocking idea.”
Will said he has not spoken with the Boyleses, but the documents filed with the Forest Service ought to be taken seriously.
“I would think the last thing we need is more mining on the Roaring Fork River,” he said.
The Boyles family said they have not yet met with the Forest Service to discuss the NOI or the land exchange.
“We look forward to sharing our concerns with them and working toward positive solutions to the many uses that are currently occurring on the road,” they wrote.
Their primary concern with a potential land exchange stems from a previous land swap between Pitkin County and the Forest Service upstream from Wildwood.
In 2008, the county was involved in a complicated land exchange with the Forest Service that ultimately transferred land upstream of Wildwood to a private landowner. The sale was a result of what was known as the Ryan Parcel Exchange, which went to a countywide vote and was approved with 79.5% of the vote.
The Boyleses were concerned that the county allowed for additional development on the land before selling it to a developer; the county notes that the property in question already had a home on it, the title of which was contested.
In that land exchange, Pitkin County purchased 35 acres of land near Ashcroft, known as Ryan Parcel, at the request of the Forest Service to prevent development and preserve the Ashcroft Ski Touring operation near the historic ghost town. In 2006, Congress directed the Forest Service to exchange other lands in Pitkin County for the Ryan Parcel, which would become part of the White River National Forest. One of those other properties included a piece of land upstream from Wildwood, and the county sold that property for $2 million — with voter approval — including the existing structure and the contested title, to recoup costs from the original purchase of land in Ashcroft.
Open Space and Trails staffers maintain that the purpose of any land exchange at Wildwood would be to streamline management as they work to preserve North Star’s unique character, not to develop any additional lands.
“Our purpose in trying to acquire this property is purely to try to gain additional jurisdiction over people putting on the river in that location,” Will said. “There’s just no way that the county is looking to flip a property for development.”
The only developable piece of the land there, Will said, is occupied by the Wildwood School.
“We are not going to do anything to question the continued operation of the school,” he said. Wildwood School’s current lease with the Forest Service runs through 2027.
Although the Forest Service owns the property at Wildwood, Will said, it is unlikely that the federal agency would take steps to limit the number of people accessing the river at that put-in. The Forest Service is required to undertake timely and expensive public processes for any such management and has limited resources for such work.
In the meantime, the county will continue to gather data in anticipation of updating its management plan for North Star in 2025, a process that will also include public input.
“It is clear that everybody thinks North Star is a sacred place because it’s so beautiful,” Will said.
And everyone wants to see their sacred places protected.
In the concluding installment of this two-part series, Aspen Journalism explores past management, recent studies and what is next for North Star.
Pitkin County supports Aspen Journalism with a grant from the Healthy Community Fund. Aspen Journalism is solely responsible for its editorial content.