Colorado Parks and Wildlife announced Tuesday that some State Wildlife Areas in Southwest Colorado have closed to all public access.
Several water-based wildlife areas and two state parks remain open to the public.
In Dolores and Montezuma counties, Lone Dome and Fish Creek State Wildlife Areas were closed until further notice, according to a news release from CPW public information officer Joe Lewandowski.
Summit, Puett, Narraguinnep, Totten, Twin Spruce, Dolores River, Joe Moore and Ground Hog Reservoir state wildlife areas will remain open. Mancos State Park in Montezuma County also will remain open and offer campsites, hiking, fishing and other water recreation.
In and near Durango, the Bodo, Perins Peak, Haviland Lake, Devil Creek and Williams Creek state wildlife areas are closed. In Bayfield, the Lion’s Club shooting range, managed by CPW, is also closed.
Echo Canyon State Wildlife Area in Archuleta County and Pastorious State Wildlife Area in La Plata County will remain open, the news release said. Navajo State Park, which offers campsites, hiking, fishing and other water recreation, also will remain open.
“We regret having to enact these closures, but we do so in an effort to protect the public and protect natural resources,” Adrian Archuleta, a CPW District Wildlife Manager, said in the news release. “These measures will also help with compliance to the recent closures enacted by the U.S. Forest Service and La Plata County.”
The San Juan National Forest closed indefinitely on Tuesday for the first time since it became a national forest more than 100 years ago.
“We realize this is a really difficult thing for the area,” said Cam Hooley, spokeswoman for the U.S. Forest Service. “It’s going to be a huge economic impact, we realize that, and it’s not taken lightly.”
As of June 12, the Burro Fire east of Dolores scorched almost 2,700 acres in the forest, and the 416 Fire north of Durango has scorched more than 23,000 acres around the Hermosa Creek drainage.
No cause of either fire has been determined.
