Where the Forest Watchers Meet
the River Keepers
 The objective of the San Luis Valley Ecosystem Council
(SLVEC) is to protect, restore, and connect wildlife
corridors from the forested mountain region of the
Rio Grande watershed, through the grass and shrub lands
of the San Luis Valley, to the Valley’s river
corridor, which stretches to the New Mexico state line
and beyond. The main dynamic of our strategy is collaboration
in a rich cultural landscape. We will continue to expand
and deepen the relationships we have been nurturing
since 1989. We will continue as well the water protection
efforts initiated by the Citizens for San Luis Valley
Water, our sponsoring organization. We will encourage
our local constituency to offer extensive public comment
in order to further our protection and restoration
strategies. The primary aim of this ecosystem-based
strategy is to maintain the vitality of the Valley’s
game herds, predator populations, resident and migratory
birds, and aquatic animals; such wildlife is the bedrock
of our region’s biodiversity. San Luis Valley
residents have a very strong sense of place, culturally
and historically. SLVEC seeks to make ecology part
of this equation as well. Our aim is to do so by the
following means:
Opposition to the Proposed "Village
at Wolf Creek"
The "Village" is a massive development planned
for a private in-holding located within the Rio Grande
National Forest (RGNF) at the base of the Wolf Creek
Ski Area on Wolf Creek Pass. Located between the South
San Juan and Weminuche Wilderness Areas at an altitude
of 10,000 feet, the in-holding is critical wildlife
habitat and serves as an important wildlife corridor
between the wilderness areas for a number of endangered
species, including the just-reintroduced Canadian Lynx.
In addition, the in-holding contains documented fen
wetlands, which exist only in high-altitude areas.
Furthermore, the in-holding is located at the south
fork headwaters of the Rio Grande; thus, whatever affects
the in-holding, affects this major river system.
The proposed development would be a gated community
consisting of over 2,100 condo units, four hotels,
225,000 square feet of commercial space, and a
lavish restaurant. The first set of RGNF scoping meetings
related to this issue has been completed, and the
magnitude of the public response has been unprecedented,
with
95% of the 2000 letters to the RGNF voicing opposition
to the project. SLVEC is encouraging this opposition
to continue.
Travel Management Planning
 Off-road vehicle use is becoming an issue in the
Valley, and people at the Bureau of Land Management
(BLM),
RGNF, and the Great Sand Dunes National Park
are concerned about road density and its effect on
the region’s
wildlife corridors. There are some 500,000 acres of
BLM land in the San Luis Valley, and the agency is
currently performing a scoping of these lands for travel
management. RGNF administrators are performing a similar
analysis of the 1.9 million acres of National Forest
cradling our valley. SLVEC is pursuing an education
campaign to protect and expand wildlife corridors between
the high-elevation national forest wilderness areas
and the lower San Luis Valley, which encompasses the
Rio Grande corridor.
SLVEC
has now submitted to the Valley branch of the
BLM a package called the
Citizens Travel Management Mapping Alternative.
It was truly a team effort — a working group
comprised of individuals living in the Valley
and travel management specialists living outside the
Valley. SLVEC
did field evaluation using GIS and GPS. Ours
was a landscape approach — that is, we considered
the Valley and its surroundings as a macrocosm Our
primary aims in this effort are to improve
core wildlife habitat; protect sensitive species
and cultural
resources; reduce road densities and road redundancies;
and to provide the best possible linkages between
BLM and Forest Service lands.
The tools we used were baseline inventories of
roads and trails conducted by the BLM; Colorado
Natural
Heritage Program “sensitive wildlife” data to target
potential conservation areas; Colorado Division of
Wildlife (DOW) “activity polygons” to determine
the location of wildlife-migration corridors; DOW and
BLM vegetation images; BLM “areas of critical
and environmental concern” data; Forest Service
road and trail maps and Wilderness Study Area data
from 1999; and United States Geological Survey digital “ortho
quarter” quad maps.
MAP1
MAP2
Great Sand Dunes National Park Protection
SLVEC played a vital role in the creation of the Great
Sand Dunes National Park legislation, which has expanded
the park and preserve by some 111,000 acres, including
some 93,000 acres of wildlife refuge, and 13,500 additional
acres of national forest. SLVEC served on the Great
Sand Dunes National Park Advisory Council, and advocated
for an additional 51,000 acres of wilderness areas.
The Final General Management Plan has been released
and agrees that the 51,000 acres will be designated
for wilderness. SLVEC continues to be involved with
the issue of access routes through the Baca/Crestone
community.
Prservation of the Alamosa Ranch
SLVEC continues to advocate for the protection
of the Alamosa Ranch — 1,300 beautiful acres of open
space, woods, and wildlife habitat bordering the Rio
Grande and owned by the city of Alamosa, Colorado.
Largely at SLVEC’s urging, the Alamosa
City Council created a seven-member board to
determine the future
of the ranch. SLVEC wants to prevent or restrict
development on the ranch and is seeking community
support to place
conservation easements, and thus permanent protection,
on all or at least significantly large portions
of the acreage. This will aid in protecting the
Rio Grande
corridor flood plain north of the Alamosa city limits.
Protection
of the Rio Grande Corridor
SLVEC helped to formulate the Rio Grande Natural
Area Legislation, which was passed by Congress in October,
2006. The Natural Area consists of approximately 11,000
acres running some thirty-three miles along the Rio
Grande from the southern boundary of the Alamosa National
Wildlife Refuge to the Colorado-New Mexico state line.
It encompasses the river and its adjacent riparian
areas. Intermittent playas are located on this area,
and the Rocky Mountain Flyway group of sandhill cranes
touch base on these playas in spring and fall.
Water Quality Project
San Luis Valley LEAP HIGH (Landscape
Environmental Assessment Plant-Human Inspired Goals
for Health). In 2005 and 2006, SLVEC worked with
the Environmental Protection Agency’s Environmental
Justice program to implement an environmental health
assessment in the SLV. This included forming a partnership
of over 25 different businesses, environmental groups,
civic and government agencies, health care providers,
and local educational institutions. This Partnership,
together with EPA, conducted a free well-testing program
during the summer of 2006, and 417 households in the
Valley participated.
Results showed significant problems in household
well-water, which provides the water for over 30
percent of Valley residents. Testing results indicated
that
28.5% of household wells were positive for bacteria (such as e-coli); 1.4%
for nitrates; 11.9% for arsenic; 1.4% for lead;
3.6% for fluoride; and 3.1% for uranium.
EPA has awarded SLVEC a three-year, Collaborative Problem Solving Grant in
the total sum of $100,000 to continue and expand
this study. The Project Partnership
received the EPA Friend of Environmental Protection Award for their work.
We are currently seeking funding to provide for additional
free- and reduced- price well testing. |
