A reservation and permit-fee system for the popular backcountry destination Conundrum Hot Springs is the Forest Service’s first concrete step toward managing record crowds in the Maroon Bells-Snowmass Wilderness.

The management plan announced Wednesday, after a decade of discussion, rolls out in three phases, starting with required reservations and fees for overnight camping at Conundrum next summer.

“I think this is a milestone for the wilderness and I hope we can start making some improvements up there,” district ranger Karen Schroyer said.

The second phase will limit overnight users on the popular Four Pass Loop, with campers required to secure permits. The final phase will include a reservation system for overnight camping at Capitol Lake.

The number of overnight visitors to the 181,535-acre Maroon Bells-Snowmass Wilderness more than doubled between 2007 and 2015, impacting the environment surrounding more than 720 backcountry campgrounds. About half of those campsites are not compliant with Forest Service rules requiring them to be at least 100 feet from trails and water. Related Articles June 30, 2017 Proposed permit system could ease pressure on hot spots in Maroon Bells-Snowmass Wilderness

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In 2015, a year in which more than 17,000 overnight visitors entered the wilderness area, rangers logged 1,543 violations, including campers not storing food in required bear canisters, not bagging and hauling their poop, using illegal campfires and letting their dogs romp off-leash.

The new management plan establishes 30 zones for overnight use, and today those zones have 374 compliant campsites. The new management plan calls for whittling that number to 302 campsites and limiting capacity at each of them.

At the wilderness area’s most trafficked zone, around Conundrum Hot Springs, there are 22 designated campsites and the new management plan shaves that to 20. But the dozens of unofficial campsites around the hot springs — occupied by hundreds of campers on busy summer weekends — will be going away.

Each of the 20 campsites around Conundrum will have a limited capacity that will be controlled through the permitting process. Those capacities will be revealed when the reservation system is unveiled early next year.

Visitation records compiled by the Forest Service show that 71 percent of overnight visitors to the Maroon Bells-Snowmass Wilderness are from Colorado and 53 percent are from the Front Range.

The Forest Service plans an outreach campaign early next year to share the details on the permit system. Permits for overnight access to the area around Conundrum Hot Springs will be obtained year-round through the website recreation.gov.

The Forest Service will pursue additional fees to pay for the management plan under the Federal Land Recreation Enhancement Act.

If approved after public review, those fees would be retained by the Aspen-Sopris Ranger District and used for plan management as well as natural resource restoration, education, outreach, monitoring and resource protection.