From the Adventure Journal today, The National Security and Federal Lands Protection Act, sponsored by Utah’s Congressman Rob Bishop and approved by the House Committee on Natural Resources 26 to 17, waives the power of 36 environmental and other laws within 100 miles of U.S. borders nationwide (angering environmentalists, since that territory includes Olympic National Park, Big Bend National Park, Allegheny National Forest, Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness, and Glacier National Park), and cuts the knees out from under the Department of Agriculture as well, which means all rights to timber claims, grazing, and farming would go by the wayside. Continue reading →
As Jim DiPeso of thegreenconservative.com says, you take your glimmers of optimism where you can find them. Here’s five Wilderness Areas championed by Republicans. What are the chances any of these will pass? . . . more>>
Just like the Colorado River does not make it to the Colorado River Delta and on to the sea, Australia’s largest river, the Murray-Darling is dry in the mouth. A 10 year drought there has made for necessary changes. Brad Udall, director of the Western Water Assessment in Colorado, spent four months in Australia working with its Department of Water. Cally Carswell of High Country News explores with Udall what happens when the door is opened and more than special interests and lawyers are allowed in the room to talk about solutions. Udall says, “For 150 years, we’ve had three kinds of people in the room talking about water: we’ve had water users, we’ve had attorneys and we’ve had engineers. And for the most part, the public, economists and scientists have not been a part of this dialogue. In Australia, they don’t even let attorneys in the room — at least according to one gentlemen down there — when it comes to water. And they talk in these very holistic (terms): what’s good for our economy, what’s good for our social systems, what’s good for the environment — they have those three perspectives. It’s not just driven by the legal system, which is usually almost always the case here in Colorado.” . . . more>>
The Colorado Plateau has some of the most light pollution free dark skies in the continental U.S. On a dark Plateau night, the Milky Way casts a shadow. Dark nights may not feel intuitively like a resource worth protecting, but on this blog by Jaymi Heimbuch of treehugger.com, youthful photographer Ben Canales captures some of the grandeur and wonder of a dark, starry night with his camera. In a (somewhat long winded) attached video he even will show you how. . . . more>>
Above all Utah is a wild and scenic place. Yet only one segment of one river in the state has been granted protection. There may be hope. Segments of nine rivers and streams in southwest Utah have been deemed eligible by the Bureau of Land Management for possible protection under the Wild and Scenic Rivers Act. Zach Frankel, executive director of the Utah Rivers Council, said getting rivers or sections of streams designated as wild and scenic is difficult because of the required congressional approval. Frankel said his group has been identifying rivers for designation throughout Utah, but a congressional sponsor is needed and no one has shown much passion. Why the lack of concern? . . . more>>
Earlier I made a post referring to an article about grazing and land management in the Los Angeles Times. Now here is one from The Atlantic, featuring 21st century ranchers, one even wearing Tevas. Tevas on a Suburu driving rancher is not something you see every day. The Atlantic has picked up on the critical idea that managing range land to optimize grass growth can make a significant impact on global carbon sequestration. It’s good to see that deceptively benign appearing grazing practices are being seen in the national press as a globally important issue. But, once again, it is the local “way of life” that stands in the way. Can Wall Street actually help? . . . more>>
The main argument for grazing cows on public land in the West is that it is and has been a “way of life.” Even the ranchers admit it is not economic. The rugged cowboy is a favorite modern day icon for the West and we all often feel a fondness for the idea he is still out there. Until you see a creek or meadow after the cows have been through. Here’s an article in the Los Angeles Times where allotments are being rested from cows, and allowed to recover. Will the National Forest Service make the right decision to keep the cows our, save a landscape and a rare trout species, or will “way of life” prevail? . . . more>>
Kirsten and I had dinner with Soren and his wife Kristen while we were in Steamboat Springs last week. Soren is the son of my old Wasatch Advisors partner, Roy Jespersen, and it was good to catch up with Soren and find out what he was working on for The Wilderness Society. I was disappointed to learn that public land grazing is considered a third rail by The Wilderness Society, but encouraged about the work they were doing, along with ranchers, on protecting land that ought not to be drilled and mined. Soren published this about Salazar’s visit to the West recently. . . . more>>
Over 60 percent of the Colorado River’s native flows are permanently removed at its headwaters by urban water systems, according to Colorado Trout Unlimited, and now two proposed water projects for Denver and the Front Range could take another 20 percent if enacted. The threatened Fraser River is a main tributary of the Colorado. It starts at Berthoud Pass, flowing for 32.5 miles — 19.5 miles in protected U.S. Forest Service and Bureau of Land Management lands — past Winter Park to Granby, Colorado. In 1992 Colorado voters overwhelmingly approved Great Outdoors Colorado (GOCO) to receive up to 50 percent of Colorado Lottery proceeds and use the funds on projects that protect and enhance Colorado’s parks, wildlife, trails, rivers and open space, and more than 5 million people by last year. We can watch how that money is used to speak for the value of water in streams. . . . more>>
What a great title for legislation from a venerable name in U.S. conservation support. Yesterday Kirsten and I drove through the San Juan Mountains from Durango to Ouray, during the peak of fall colors, and we think it may be about the most beautiful landscape we have ever seen. So it is gratifying to see that there is right now a proposal to designate more than 60,000 acres in southwestern Colorado as either wilderness or a special management area back before Congress. U.S. Sens. Mark Udall and Michael Bennet are reintroducing the San Juan Mountains Wilderness Act, Continue reading →
