Balarat Creek Ranch

In 1999, the owners of Balarat Creek Ranch hired a professional forester who drew up a forest stewardship plan that included extensive thinning of the ranch's overgrown forest.  A few months after the plan was approved by the Colorado State Forest Service and Boulder County, Vernon Brandt (the founder of About Public Lands) started his campaign of harassment and character assassination against the ranch owners.  His group has used vandalism and threats to try to prevent the owners from using their land as they see fit.  His tactics have included the absurd denial that the thinning project was legitimate.  His excuse for tearing down "no trespassing" signs was that they were nailed up with roofing barbs, which he felt were somehow harming the trees.  His threats included this weakly-disguised suggestion:  'spoze they catch fire less easy now that they've been "thined" '

This threat came just before a Jeep started the Big Elk Fire, which killed 3 firefighters a few miles from the Balarat Creek Ranch.  Threats of arson in a drought-stricken area should be taken seriously by all.  About Public Lands formed an alliance with the Mile-Hi Jeep Club, which wanted to use the ranch for an extreme off-road recreation area.  They have joined the harassment campaign by claiming the owners had no right to block access to their private ranch.  They are using R.S. 2477 -- a law that does not apply to private roads built on private property -- as their cover story.

"Sometimes ecoterrorism is o.k."  Anonymous critic of this website, apparently defending About Public Lands' attack on the Balarat Creek Ranch.

A message from SamFromCO an Aurora four-wheeler, gives some insight about the views of this community to land ownership.

Off-roaders are planning to return to the area of this crime to do more "road work" to keep ordinary people out: See their current plans: "If you make a gatekeeper obstacle at carnage, It would plug the trail for the entire weekend".  They plan on "knocking down stacked rocks" so that this public area is accessable only to them.  They have a history of "unstacking" on Barking Dog Trail, without regard to fact that it is private access.  The fact that they don't see anything wrong with keeping ordinary people off a public road at Lefthand speaks volumes.

In spite of the media coverage of vigilante destruction on Fairview Peak, off-roaders are still threatening to return to Balarat Creek Ranch with a chainsaw.  The Colorado 4x4 bulletin board has been removing incriminating posts, so here is a cached copy of the threat, with a link to the original. 

Off-roaders have attempted to block and deny access from this site to their discussion groups, in order to keep people from seeing their self-incriminating statements.  If you get a FORBIDDEN notice on some of the links to their site, follow the directions after the quotes you want to see.

"i would appreciate the help to the end that the road is again usable by us all."
"i am going to remove all of your obstructions and drive on the road knows as barking dog"
--Vernon Brandt of the Mile-Hi Jeep Club, attempting to form another vigilante group to trespass on private land.

"i said 'backhoe' not dozer":
--Vernon Brandt of the Mile-Hi Jeep Club, clarifying his intent to take heavy construction equipment onto private property.

"If you make a gatekeeper obstacle at carnage, It would plug the trail for the entire weekend":
--durland@colorado.edu, proposing a method to keep ordinary citizens with stock vehicles off of a public trail

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and then sue someone who posts a link it..  Intellectual property law does not work that way.  It is not even an effective form of harassing one's critics

Note:  extrodinary efforts have been made by colorado4x4.org to hide their links.  If you get the message:  "You have requested a topic that does not exist!" it means that this topic has been deemed sensitive and has been hidden from the general public.