The Colorado Trail-469 spectacular miles through the Rocky Mountains from Denver to Durango-is a Colorado treasure. Last week, my husband and I hiked the Trail from Molas Pass, just south of Silverton, to Durango, a 75 mile trek through colorful meadows of wildflowers and stunning mountain passes and valleys.

Completed in 1987, the Trail was the dream of Forest Service officials and Coloradans who love our mountains. Volunteers built the Trail and volunteers maintain it today. Countless visitors from all over the world hike, ride horseback and, in some places, bike along the Trail, enjoying its peacefulness and beauty.

The Colorado Trail Foundation organizes the volunteers who maintain the Trail. These enthusiastic volunteers also lead small groups of hikers on week-long outings along the Trail. They feed you, haul your heavy gear from one lovely campsite to another and encourage you to keep going those last couple of miles of your 19-mile day. All you, the hiker, must do is carry a day pack, set up your own tent and enjoy the wilderness.

On the first day of our hike alone, through high mountain meadows above tree line, the botanists among us counted 41 different wildflowers. The paintbrush, in its full glory, came in a rainbow of colors, from red to violet to orange and white to green to yellow. Penstemon, larkspur and asters filled the meadows while colorful columbine blanketed the mountainsides.

As we climbed out of steep valleys, peaks came into view-Wilson, Wilson Peak, and El Diente to the North; Eolus, Sunlight and Windom to the East. Sneffels and Lizard Head were guideposts the entire way. To the Southeast, we watched the progress of the Mesa Verde fire, happily seeing the evening rains diminish the great clouds of smoke.

Dinner conversations turned to the outdoors, politics and great vacations. Many of us had hiked around the world. Our politics were as varied as our backgrounds. We had visited many beautiful places. But, we all had one common interest-the Colorado Trail. And we all had one common passion-to preserve this Trail for others to enjoy.

That's why many of us were deeply concerned by Governor George Bush's comment that "the culture of public lands management" would be very different [from President Clinton's] under his administration. We wondered what that meant. Would the mountainsides of firs and pines be clear-cut by logging outfits? Would the fragile meadows be ravaged by jeep and off-road vehicle tracks? Would maintaining the wonderful Trail we so enjoyed continue to be a Forest Service priority in this new culture?

Establishing a balance among users of public lands is always a delicate task. For those who enjoy the wilderness, whether they get there via a jeep road or along a hiking trail, a landscape unmarred by logging, mining and unrestricted use, is vitally important. Others would prefer to find economic gain in Colorado's wild places. Throughout our history, this competition has continued, but only recently has an interest in preserving the beauty and ecology of our state prevailed. One needs only to look at the many mountainsides scarred by old abandoned mines, wagon and jeep trails and clear-cut logging to realize the long-term effects of unbalanced use.

The question to ask, then, is this, "Will a new 'culture of public lands management' return us to an era when economic exploitation takes precedence over wilderness preservation?" Will this new "culture" undo the work of the volunteers who built the Colorado Trail? Will those of us who love the peace and beauty of our Rocky Mountains be hounded out by the sounds of chain saws and the smells of gasoline engines? Will our rivers and streams be polluted by chemicals and diverted to urban uses?

For all of us who love the Colorado backcountry, whether it's hiking the Colorado Trail or fishing in a quiet mountain lake or driving the scenic byways, these are vital questions. We can influence the answers with our votes, our letters, our phone calls and, of course, our emails.