A plan to build a road and utility corridor across land in the vicinity of ancient archaeological sites north of Durango has neighbors alarmed.
The proposal comes from businessman Ed Zink, who has asked the U.S. Forest Service for a half-mile easement to reach 30 acres he owns south of Falls Creek Ranch between county roads 205 and 203.
Zink, who wants to enter the property from County Road 205, would have to push a road through an area occupied for nearly 1,000 years by ancestors of modern Native American tribes.
Dr. Gary Ruggera, a Falls Creek resident, said in a telephone interview that Zink could get to his acreage from County Road 203 on an old right of way.
“Cutting a road through Hidden Valley (another name for the greater Falls Creek neighborhood) is not the answer,” Ruggera said. “It would open the area to potentially significant abuse of archaeological sites, negatively impact wildlife and wetlands, and damage the trail system.”
Zink said Wednesday there is no way to access his holding from County Road 203 as Falls Creek Ranch residents and neighbors want. If he followed an old wagon road off County Road 203, he would have to cross the lots of five owners.
All of them have told him politely but firmly they won’t give him an easement, Zink said.
“Also, the property deed says there is no access from a public road,” Zink said.
So he is landlocked.
As the only alternative, Zink has staked and flagged a possible route that would branch off County Road 205 about four miles north of Junction Creek Road, then twist and turn for 2,600 feet to reach his property.
“My route goes over a lot of land disturbed in the past by ranching and farming activities and roads, so there’s little undisturbed land,” Zink said. “I also avoid most of the wetlands and a ‘social’ trail.”
Social trails are ones created by public use, in contrast to official Forest Service trails. His proposed route crosses the trail four times for a total of 40 feet, Zink said.
Matt Janowiak, the Forest Service ranger and manager of the Columbine District, plans to visit the area Friday with various experts to get a lay of the land.
“We’ll be looking at the final route proposal,” Janowiak said Wednesday. “The process is only beginning. It involves a scoping session to get public opinion on issues tied to Zink’s proposal. Then we’d do an environmental assessment over the winter based on the findings.
“When we release the assessment there would be a 30-day period for public comment,” Janowiak said.
Zink, who applied for the County Road 205 easement in 2008, said the process follows a given set of rules in effect at the time. It will be a cut-and-dried decision based on facts, he said.
“If I could do it a better way, I would,” he said. “I wish I could say, ‘Here’s another way.’”
As for archaeologically sensitive areas, Zink said the major points of interest are found on a cliff west of County Road 205.
“I paid for an archaeological survey of my 30 acres,” Zink said. “They found nothing.”
Janowiak said the Zink property is in a conservation easement that allows him to build one house there.
A conservation easement sets property aside from wholesale development.
The 1,500-acre Falls Creek Archaeological Area just outside Durango contains, among other things, sacred burial grounds.
A grass-roots effort headed by the La Plata Open Space Conservancy in 1992 scuttled plans for a subdivision there. The Trust for Public Land, Congress through then-U.S. Sen. Ben Nighthorse Campbell of Colorado and private donations raised more than $1 million to buy the land in 1996. Congress contributed $800,000.
The cliffs in the archaeological area are off limits to the public.
daler@durangoherald.com
