We are a group of Ouray County residents concerned about conditions of our alpine access roads and alpine zones. Over the past few years, we have witnessed and experienced a dramatic increase in the use of our backcountry resources.  While we are encouraged to see so many people discovering the great outdoors and are happy to share our little corner of the state, the increased use has also resulted in the rise of illegal and unsafe behaviors and degradation of our resources such as roadways, waterways, fragile alpine vegetation and wildlife.  We are concerned that if the unmanaged use of our backcountry resources continues, it will have a negative effect on the county residents’ quality of life and visitors’ experiences in future years, will cause irreversible damage to our natural resources, jeopardize access to the federal lands and, in the end, will negatively impact our tourism-based economy.  We believe that in order for our economy to continue to flourish, our county needs to manage our resources carefully.