The storm on [January 10, 2018 provided a badly needed thin blanket of snow at Telluride. After a ski season of virtually no snow, the resort received 23 inches in five days. Photo/ Telluride Ski & Golf
Making lemonade in Telluride during a winter of very little natural snow
It finally snowed during the last week in Telluride, 23 inches in five days, enough to whiten the landscape and cloak some of the grass. At least for a bit, the lab experiment is on hold.
That unwitting experiment being tested at Telluride and a good many other resorts this winter has been whether a ski resort can operate and have great success without snow falling from the heavens?
Snow surveys conducted last week in the San Juan Mountains of southwestern Colorado found snow depths 22 percent of normal. To the north in Colorado, they were reported to be 65 percent of normal. Aspen got nine inches over the weekend, hardly worth mentioning in most years. This year it’s the equivalent of a man biting a dog.
In Telluride, the chief executive of the community’s promotional arm reports no grim hits to the community tourism economy—not yet at least. “It’s not all about snow,” says Michael Martelon, of VisitTelluride. “But if we had it, it would make everything else better.”
Martelon is quick to note that Telluride differs from resorts close to cities in that its customers mostly come from long distances. Denver is six hours away, Phoenix eight. Snow is somewhat less important to its visitors than weekend skiing customers on Colorado’s I-70 corridor or those from Utah’s Wasatch Front.
Telluride still has skiing, thanks in part to $15 million in snowmaking investments in the last six years. But for many visitors, skiing is not the end all, be all. There are galleries, restaurants, and even the Jud Wiebe Trail. Located on the south-facing slopes above Telluride, it was still accessible even after the first storm in the recent sequence.
Christmas was strong, and the only repercussion so far has been a softening in bookings for spring break. Lodges require 45-day advance payment, he notes. But for the moment, bookings are pacing to be ahead of last year.
Martelon sees lemonade when others, especially locals accustomed to daily blasts of powder, see lemons. “It might be a blessing in disguise,” he says. “Taking care of the guest becomes the absolute priority, because the snow isn’t doing it for you.”
That said, he suggested checking back in May, to see if his optimism was fully justified.
Elsewhere in the West’s ski towns, Ketchum and Sun Valley reported a lucrative holiday season, better in most cases than the year before. Before, there was powder to ski in the morning. This year, there was little compelling reason to arise, so people stay out at night, explained the Idaho Mountain Express.
At the foot of the ski area, the Ketchum Ranger Station had no measurable snow on the ground on Jan. 1. That’s a first since record-keeping began in 1938, according to the National Weather Service.
But on Wednesday, the Mountain Express proclaimed that the valley “finally looks like winter.”
In Aspen, there was optimism that snowmaking—helped by cold nights—will save the day for the X Games Aspen on Jan. 25-28.
“It really is impressive what the snowmaking and grooming teams have been able to do,” Jeff Hanle, spokesman for the company, told the Aspen Daily News.
In California, an early January snow survey near the entrance to the Sierra-at-Tahoe ski area revealed an average depth of 1.3 inches of snow. The water in that snow is 3 percent of the long-term average for the location, at about 6,640 feet (2,020 meters) in elevation, reported Lake Tahoe News.
Will this change? “There is still a lot of winter left,” Frank Gehrke, who conducts the survey, said. “January, February and into March are frequently productive.”
That said, there are concerns about whether the warming Arctic could in coming decades produce changes in the Pacific Ocean that will more frequently create the high-pressure ridges that have plagued California in recent years. This same high-pressure ridge was blamed for the lack of snow across the West until this past week. See Dec. 7 story in Mountain Town News.
Silverton, Colo., lies an at elevation of 9,300 feet in San Juan County, and the Gold King Mine is more than 1,000 feet higher in the valley at the left side of the photo. Photo/Allen Best
Marilyn Short and Luke Mick are gumshoes of sorts: They’re trying to solve the mystery of why the Animas River near Silverton has more caddisflies than would be expected after the Gold King Mine spill.
Sadie Vance, Abby Allsopp and Faith Mewmaw created an interactive fishing game where anglers using a yardstick converted to a fishing pole can test their luck catching wood cutouts of fish and attendant pollutants and heavy metals found in the Animas River.
Ryan Colley, Chole Walsh and Cole Elliott devised an interactive video game where players can learn how the upgrade to the wastewater-treatment plant at Santa Rita will cleanse the urban waste stream so it can be safely returned to the Animas.
They were among 65 Animas High School juniors in Steve Smith’s chemistry class who plunged into a subject that brings nervous jitters to many a former high-schooler as they delved into the world of ionic and covalent bonds and spectroscopy through the lens of studying water quality.
On Thursday evening at the Powerhouse Science Center, students presented projects from their study of water quality in the Animas River. About 150 people attended.
“Students get exposed to water quality in this town, and this allowed them to look at the issue in a different manner,” Smith said.
The students, he said, spent about two weeks on the projects, and the city of Durango and Mountain Studies Institute partnered with Short during the unit…
Chole, who joined Ryan and Cole in creating a video game based on upgrades to the wastewater-treatment plant at Santa Rita, said the city of Durango helped with research – and even provided a tour.
“We were introduced to how the water-treatment plant works. We were able to ask questions. It really helped me more than a basic lecture,” Chole said of her group’s Santa Rita tour.
The trio’s video game is only in its rudimentary stages, and the students want to develop more levels: As players advance, they gain more knowledge of the chemistry behind processes as wastewater moves through treatment stages before its eventual return to the Animas.
When asked if the trio could, on its own, do the necessary work to complete the video game, Ryan said, “If we had more time, I think we’d get decently close.”
Cole said the chemistry proved relatively easy to understand; the hard part of video game development was getting the game to operate properly on all three members’ laptops.
Marilyn’s study of caddisflies left one big impression: “I was surprised by how much life is in the river that I didn’t even know about.”
“Microinvertebrates are useful in determining water quality,” Luke said, adding he was stumped why the Animas near Silverton has more caddisflies than expected based on its water composition.
Lower Arkansas Valley Water Conservancy District welcomes new member, keeps same officers, hears three reports.
The Lower Arkansas Valley Water Conservancy District welcomed new board member Phillip Chavez at Wednesday’s meeting. Chavez is manager of Diamond A Farms and also has Chavez Family Farms. He was appointed by Judge Mark MacDonnell, and replaces Willard Behm, who completed the term of the late Wayne Whittaker.
All of the LAVWCD officers were retained – Lynden Gill of Bent County as chairman, Leroy Mauch of Prowers County as vice chairman, Melissa Esquibel of Pueblo County as secretary, and Jim Valliant of Crowley County as treasurer. Mauch was reappointed as LAVWCD member on the Fountain Creek Watershed, Flood Control and Greenway Board.
Three PowerPoints were presented on Wednesday. The first was by Chris Woodka on the Arkansas Valley Conduit, the second by Krystal Brown of the United States Geological Survey on a joint survey of USGS and LAVWCD on groundwater in the Lower Arkansas Valley, and the third by Larry Small, a study of Fountain Creek Flood Control.
Woodka went over the history of the Conduit project, which goes back to letters of support from 1952 and 1953 and was created officially when President John F. Kennedy came to Pueblo to sign the Fryingpan-Arkansas Project Act, which contained the Conduit. Through many years of struggle and $22 million spent, the final Environmental Impact Statement was completed in 2013 and recorded in 2014. The lengthy and expensive detour around Pueblo by the Conduit may be bypassed by the new concept put forth by the Southeastern Colorado Water Conservancy District which would use the capacity in Pueblo Water’s system to deliver water at the eastern boundary of Pueblo to the Arkansas Valley Conduit, saving about 10 years in the construction process.
Brown’s presentation was a study in discrete groundwater measurements at 125 sites measured biannually. The data will be used to study climate, land-use practices and water-management practices. The proposed 2018 program involved: 1. Biannual groundwater level measurements of 125 alluvial and basin-fill wells – LAVWCD contributes $211,349 and USGS $9,241; 2. The operation of real-time continuous water temperature and specific conductance monitor to which LAVWCD contributes $10,750 and USGS, $4,605; 3. Seven sites of discrete specific conductance measurements – LAVWCD $4,043, USGS $869.
Larry Small, representing the Fountain Creek Watershed, presented a needs assessment for the Fountain Creek Flood Control Study. Phase 1 was an appraisal study of the feasibility of three alternatives and subalternatives (completed in Jan 2017). Phase 2 is a needs assessment of screen alternatives and involves selecting the preferred alternative, to be completed in Feb 2018. Future phases will be financing, permitting, design and construction. The recommendation is the Floodplain Management alternative. Its advantages are as follows: 1. provides multiple benefits in addition to flood management, 2. has stakeholder support, 3. could attract outside funding for certain components, 4. could be combined with localized floodplain measures in Pueblo at currently flood-prone locations to address the key flood control objectives along Fountain Creek in Pueblo. The Floodplain Management alternative is the only alternative that can be phased, but would require the longest time for completion.
Attorney Peter Nichols received $1,000 from the board toward the cost of filing in opposition to an appeal by New York over a sewage discharge matter to the U.S. Supreme Court. The board went into executive session with the lawyers.
Members of multiple Archuleta County agencies met on Jan. 17 to come to a consensus on working together as part of a Growing Water Smart (GWS) workgroup.
Members of the Pagosa Springs Town Council, Archuleta County Board of County Commissioners (BoCC), Pagosa Area Water and Sanitation District (PAWSD), San Juan Water Conservancy District (SJWCD), Pagosa Lakes Property Owners Association board (PLPOA) and Pagosa Fire Protection District (PFPD) were all participants of the work session.
Town Planning Director James Dickhoff and PAWSD Manager Jus- tin Ramsey began the work session by giving information on the GWS workshop held in September.
According to documentation provided at the work session, the workshop was attended by a seven member community team from Archuleta County.
The workshop was held by the Sonoran Institute and focused on integrating land use and water resource planning.
After the three-day workshop concluded, the Archuleta County team concluded that in order to implement the goals of the Colorado Water Plan, better collaboration among the separate government entities was needed…
Benefits
Town council member Mat de- Graaf noted that this workgroup would be helpful for each individual organization to use funds as effi- ciently as possible.
“That happens when we’re all on the same page, understanding who is doing what and why,” deGraaf said.
PFPD board member David Blake then added that it would define the availability of water and service needs for the fire district.
“None of us want to waste time, energy, or money. Because, basically, we’re all using tax money to try and get something good done,” SJWCD board member Ray Finney said.
SJWCD board member Al P ster also added that it would allow each organization to identify challenges and obstacles earlier.
Moving forward with the work session, Curgus then asked the group about any challenges with the collaboration.
Challenges
Coordinating each of the various member’s meeting schedules was noted as a challenge by town council member Nicole DeMarco.
deGraaf then noted that each organization may have differing perspectives on which way the data set is veering.
“Can anyone think of an example where one entity may like that it’s veering in one way?” deGraaf asked.
The work session then transitioned to a variety of topics ranging from the benefits of a collective data source to how the workgroup should function.
Would you like to learn more about what Archuleta County is doing to minimize the impacts of floods, dam failures, wildfires, hazardous materials incidents and other hazards?
A draft of the county’s updated Multi-Hazard Mitigation Plan is being made available for public review and comment. The plan assesses risks posed by natural and man-made hazards, identifies ways to reduce those risks and allows the county to remain eligible for mitigation funding from FEMA.
A Hazard Mitigation Planning Committee that includes representatives from various county departments, Pagosa Springs, Pagosa Area Water and Sanitation District, and the Pagosa Fire
Protection District updated the plan over the past eight months with assistance from a consultant.
The plan identifies hazard mitigation goals and a variety of mitigation projects with the intent of reducing losses from hazard events before they occur again.
The planning committee is now soliciting public comment on the plan before it is finalized and submitted for FEMA review and approval.
Click here to read the newsletter. Here’s an excerpt:
Colorado Ag Water Alliance Workshops
The Colorado Ag Water Alliance (CAWA) is hosting a series of workshops for farmers and ranchers around the state to disseminate information and discuss pertinent water issues related to Ag. This is an opportunity to discuss what is going on around the state in terms of Ag water use. It’s also an opportunity for the member organizations of CAWA to receive feedback from producers on water policy and programs.
The Basin Roundtable is generously sponsoring this event.
Here’s the release from Aurora Water (Greg Baker):
On Monday evening, Aurora Water received approval from City Council to buy water rights associated with the London Mine, located near Alma, in Park County. 1,411 acre feet (af) is being purchased at a price of $22,000 per af, with additional costs of $3 million for the option to additional water rights as they are developed. An acre foot of water is 325,851 gallons, enough water to serve 2.5 households on average. The seller of the rights is MineWater Finance, LLC and No Name Investors, both Colorado companies. The total value of this initial sale is $34,042,000. As additional water rights are developed, Aurora may purchase these rights for $21,500 per acre foot. The sellers are confident that the source of the rights could ultimately result in an average annual deliverable of 5,400 af.
The source of this water is from a basin that is recharged from snowmelt on London Mountain. A geologic fault contains the water underground and prevents it from discharging into South Mosquito Creek, a tributary of the South Platte River. This water will be pumped from the basin to a water tunnel in the London Mine and from there, discharged into South Mosquito Creek. Since this water is not naturally connected to the streams, it is decreed under Colorado Water Law as non-tributary. This has special meaning as this water is fully reusable and can be recaptured utilizing Aurora’s Prairie Waters system, a potable reuse system.
Aurora Water has been a national leader in water efficiency, including an acclaimed water reuse system called Prairie Waters, and a nationally recognized water conservation program. Water acquisition is still necessary to meet future demands.
“Looking for new water supplies in the arid west requires innovative thinking,” said Marshall Brown, Director for Aurora Water. “This is a supply that historically has not been tapped by water providers, but the easier supplies are gone.”
The environmentally positive aspects of purchase have resulted in praise from organizations such as the Boulder-based Water Resource Advocates (WRA).
“New water supplies in Colorado are extremely limited and, at the same time, nearly 2,000 miles of streams in Colorado are polluted by mines,” Laura Belanger, Water Resources and Environmental Engineer with WRA stated. “We commend Aurora Water for taking a leadership role in finding this inventive and environmentally beneficial solution to meeting its customers’ water needs.”
The Aurora City Council will vote on the purchase agreement at its regular session on Monday, January 22, 2018. Aurora Water will have a 180 day due diligence period prior to the final closing. Additional water rights under the options provision will be purchased as they are adjudicated and decreed through Colorado’s Water Courts.
Video b-roll of Aurora Water staff touring London Mine with MineWater on November 1, 2017 is available at https://youtu.be/uCNLNvJsu24
CDPHE officials on Thursday declined to discuss the London Mine deal. Colorado Department of Natural Resources officials also declined to discuss it.
But “if they have a water right, they may extract the resource,” according to an emailed response that an agency information gatekeeper said could be attributed to Ginny Brannon, director of the agency’s division of reclamation, mining and safety.
State officials didn’t raise any concerns. They say their agency “partners” with others to reduce pollution “and additional partners and funding can always be used to reduce pollution from these large numbers of … inactive mines,” the statement said.
On Monday, Aurora council members, who have discussed the deal with utility officials in an executive session, will consider an initial purchase of 1,400 acre-feet of water for $32 million. That works out to about $22,000 per acre-foot, comparable with what utilities pay to acquire surface water. A second transaction would expand the pumping to extract up to 5,400 acre-feet a year, depending on a state water court determination of what is sustainable.
Money for the deal would come from fees charged to developers of new homes.
As the owners of the largest coal-burning power plant in the West map out the details of closing in the next two years, the Navajo Nation has taken its next step in its energy development by starting operations at a new 27-megawatt solar farm not far from the source of the coal that fuels Navajo Generating Station. The Kayenta solar project, owned by the Navajo Tribal Utility Authority and operated by First solar, is the first large-scale solar energy facility on the reservation. The electricity is sold to the Salt River Project for distribution. The project’s 120,000 photovoltaic panels sit on 200 acres and are mounted on single-axis trackers that follow the movement of the sun. It provides enough electricity to power approximately 7,700 households. The tribe entered a lease agreement with NTUA in 2015 for the location, a groundbreaking ceremony was held in April 2016, followed by six months of construction that started last September. The $60 million facility was built using a construction loan from the National Rural Utilities Cooperative Finance Corporation.
The second phase will produce the same amount of energy as the first – about 27 megawatts, or enough to power 18,000 homes. It’s expected to start operating next year.
The Navajo Tribal Utility Authority is financing the $50 million project through loans.
Tribal officials say they’ll sell the renewable energy credits to the Phoenix-based Salt River Project. SRP also will get energy equal to the amount generated at Kayenta.
The setup is similar for the first phase in Kayenta that went online last year.
The two utilities signed an agreement Friday to work together on future renewable energy projects, with a goal of 500 megawatts over the next five to 10 years.
Here’s the release from the University of Colorado:
Coloradans “firmly disapprove” of President Donald Trump and the U.S. Congress, have waning confidence in state lawmakers on both sides of the aisle, overwhelmingly support “Dreamers” and would likely favor a Democrat if a congressional election were held today.
“Not surprisingly, people in Colorado are unhappy with the state of politics right now, and it is affecting how they view lawmakers and policy issues at the local level,” said political science professor and lab director Scott Adler, one of three collaborators on the survey.
Launched in 2016, the nonpartisan lab supports research, education and public engagement about American politics. The survey was administered online to more than 800 demographically diverse residents in November, asking questions ranging from how they feel about providing tax incentives for large companies, like Amazon, to their views on climate change and marijuana legalization. The survey also asked how respondents might vote in the upcoming gubernatorial election.
The Colorado Political Climate Survey is the first to offer a comprehensive, annual look at political attitudes of residents in the battleground Centennial State over time.
“The survey adds to the public discourse by focusing on issues that are important for both state and national policymakers that other surveys do not ask about,” said Carey Stapleton, a fourth-year PhD student who helped develop the survey.
Trust in elected officials on the decline
On the national level, only 14 percent of survey respondents (18 percent of Republicans and 13 percent of Democrats) approved of Congress’ job performance, down from 26 percent in 2016.
Thirty-four percent (79 percent of Republicans and four percent of Democrats) approved of Trump’s performance, with more men expressing approval than women. This compares to the 57 percent overall approval rate respondents gave to Obama in 2016.
Despite a slight decline in his approval rating, a majority (53 percent) of Coloradans still approve of Gov. John Hickenlooper. But both Democratic Sen. Michael Bennet and Republican Sen. Cory Gardner saw their approval ratings slip below the 50 percent mark: 44 percent approve of Bennet’s performance, down from 53 percent in 2016; 25 percent approve of Gardner’s performance, down from 43 percent in 2016.
“Gardner saw the biggest change in job approval among statewide elected officials,” the report states. “Not only is Gardner’s overall approval rating very low among Democrats (12 percent) as we might expect, but he scores quite poorly among independents (23 percent) and lacks majority approval among Republicans (46 percent).”
On the state level, approval of the legislature fell from 51 percent to 43 percent overall.
While trust in local government remained unchanged and fairly robust, trust in the federal government plummeted: In 2016, 1 in 4 said they trusted the federal government. In 2017, 1 in 10 said they did.
Coloradans split on issues, except DACA
Coloradans were split along party lines on most policy issues. But on immigration, a notable exception emerged: 71 percent (including 52 percent of Republicans) said they favor allowing undocumented residents who came to the country as children, aka “Dreamers” to stay in the country via policies like DACA (Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals).
“With the current national debate on immigration, I think it is important to note that a majority of all partisans—Democrats, independents and Republicans—support allowing Dreamers to remain in the United States,” Stapleton said.
Coloradans also gave lukewarm support (56 percent) for tax-incentives to bring large companies to Colorado. Two-thirds support marijuana legalization, and 60 percent support increased gun-control measures.
Looking forward
When asked whether they would support a Democratic or Republican candidate in the next congressional election, respondents favored Democrats by almost 20 percentage points, a spread that has grown since 2016. Democrats fared better in urban and suburban areas, while in rural areas, to the surprise of the authors, the vote would be “dead even.”
The authors say it is too early to tell whether Colorado is shifting from purple to blue “but our numbers from the past two years would seem to be consistent with such a trend.”
The survey will be repeated next fall, with results released before the 2018 election.
As Outdoor Retailer begins its first trade show here after 20 years in Salt Lake City, conservationists are celebrating a sense of relief to be out of Utah and in a state where protections for public lands enjoy broad political support.
Also: “The beer is stronger, the peaks are taller and the recreation is higher,” Maria Handley, of Conservation Colorado, proclaimed to a cheering crowd Wednesday night at a party welcoming the massive trade show to Denver.
Utah’s chances of recovering the goodwill of the outdoor industry’s leadership appeared to fade as Outdoor Retailer settled into its new home — with some still reeling from President Donald Trump’s December order drastically reducing Bears Ears and Grand Staircase-Escalante national monuments, which Utah’s elected officials strongly advocated.
“If there’s any doubt that we made the right move coming to Colorado, I think it’s dispelled,” John Sterling, director of the Conservation Alliance, said to applause.
As exhibitors filled the Colorado Convention Center on Thursday, the focus was on sales — and vendors were cautiously optimistic that this year’s show, bigger than last year’s, would prove fruitful.
But on Wednesday night, in Denver’s crowded civic center, industry and government leaders stressed their public policy partnership in Colorado. Gov. John Hickenlooper recited a list of political victories for public lands, from Colorado’s bipartisan defense of Canyons of the Ancients National Monument to the Legislature’s tense but ultimately successful designation of the Colorado Public Lands Day holiday.
“Clean air, clean water, public lands,” Hickenlooper said, “that’s about the most nonpartisan position you could have.”
Colorado Water Plan website screen shot November 1, 2013
FromThe Grand Junction Daily Sentinel (Floyd Ciruli):
Although Colorado has identified its water needs and has a state plan, 2018 will be a year of political transition. Will a new governor and legislature keep water at the top of the agenda or allow it to drop until the next water crisis? Many local agencies need financial help that can’t be met through local ratepayers alone. The state water plan identified $3 billion in unmet needs. And, as California has demonstrated, conservation must be a well-articulated state goal with significant resources dedicated to public education. California cut statewide use by 25 percent during the last drought through massive education coordinated with local agencies. But, leadership, both local and from the state, is needed.
Gov. John Hickenlooper accelerated the work of former governors Bill Owens and Bill Ritter to help address the state’s projected water shortage, but he only has one year left in office. Fortunately, besides Hickenlooper’s advancement of the scientific base behind the need for new projects, his use of a state planning process that involved all eight water basins in cooperation and decision-making and his issuing of a completed state water plan in December 2015, he has also seen real progress during his term on projects. He helped facilitate approval of Denver Water’s Gross Reservoir and Northern Water’s Windy Gap projects. Still, much remains to be done.
■ How will pressing water issues fare through the upcoming political transition?
■ Will the research, river basin collaboration and planning continue?
■ Will permitting of the water projects now underway continue to make progress?
■ Will the next wave of projects — many in rural and small towns — get permitted, funded and built?
■ Will the state initiate and fund a statewide conservation public education program?
■ Will the state continue its planning processes in order to lead a ballot issue funding effort? (The previous proposal, controversial in design and promotion, failed in 2003, but lessons were learned.)
The planning and development capabilities of Colorado’s water community have grown significantly, but the needs are growing faster still. Through the 2018 political transition, we must ensure that water remains a top priority and not become another state plan ignored in a government file.
“We want to make sure our great outdoor recreation opportunities are even better for Coloradans,” Polis said. “I think by focusing on it we can do that and create good jobs as well as in the outdoor recreation industry.”
One of the aspects of the plan includes the establishment of the Colorado conservation and recreation districts. By creating such regions, lesser-known locations in the state can be discovered by tourists, he noted.
“We can help get more people to some of our great sights in Colorado,” Polis said. “That way it can ease congestion in some of the most traveled to areas and it can highlight some of the other areas in our state that have great potential through conservation and recreation districts.
“I think a lot of local communities in western Colorado will take advantage of becoming conservation and recreation districts to really help put themselves on the map to create good jobs.”
It’s not just the sights that are crucial to visitors of the state, but also the recreational activities available in Colorado, he said. Polis noted his quality-of-life goal for residents is for people to continue with outdoor interests like biking, hiking, hunting and fishing.
“Those are all the reasons why we are so proud and excited to be Coloradans,” Polis said. “We really rely on having access to great wild areas in open spaces.”
Those considerable landscapes are also key features for people interested in discovering outdoor activities in Colorado, he added.
“It’s an important part of filling our restaurants, hotels and retail stores,” Polis said. “So, it’s an important job creator in our state as we can attract people from other areas of the country for skiing, hunting, fishing or hiking.”
He added to keep such pursuits viable means to improve funding for Colorado Parks and Wildlife. With 80 percent of CPW revenue coming from users fees, Polis said he does not desire to have outdoor enthusiasts pay for most of it.
“We want to make sure the full burden of maintaining trails and our public lands doesn’t fall on anglers and hunters,” Polis said.
A way to potentially work on that is by creating a commission filled with people from the recreation side, hunters and environmental experts, he noted.
Additionally, the representative said he means to make sure the CPW and the Conservation and Great Outdoors Colorado trust funds are financed. Polis said it’s vital for GOCO to remain intact as it’s been invaluable for creating work.
“It’s really important to secure funding for Great Outdoors Colorado,” Polis said, adding such grants support over 11,000 jobs and provide millions of dollars in economic activity for the state.
It also has helped with financing locally.
The Montrose Recreation District has received numerous grants from GOCO. One of the more recent ones came in September 2017 when the City of Montrose and MRD’s $2 million grant application for trail connections was approved by the organization.
Jason Ullmann, MRD Board vice president and current acting president, said if it wasn’t for one of those grants in the past the Community Recreation Center wouldn’t have its amenities outside of the facility.
“With many of those outdoor facilities, we wouldn’t have built Phase 2, which includes the trials and pickleball courts. We wouldn’t have those without GOCO,” Ullmann said. “So the rec center was made much better with those grant dollars.”
Part of Polis’ plan is to make sure the ecosystem is still intact. He explained many organisms are on the Endangered Species list, which can lead to a snowball effect if they become wiped out.
“With certain species that become extinct it’s not just them that are affected,” Polis said. “It can lead to overpopulation of other species, it can throw entire ecosystems out of whack, it can ruin the outdoor experience for hunters or anglers, so it’s very important to help maintain healthy ecosystems.”
He added going forward he wants to preserve the outdoor way of life for future generations of Coloradans.
“We need to make sure we are protecting our environment and that we leave a legacy for our kids and grandkids in the same great state we live in,” Polis said.
What about water?
Polis said he supports Gov. John Hickenlooper’s Colorado Water Plan, and if elected, he will implement it.
“We want to make sure we have a collaborative approach to transmountain diversion. That we can make sure that our Western Colorado communities aren’t forced to pay the price for Front Range growth,” Polis said. “We want to make sure people across our whole state have access to high-quality water for the quantities we need for agricultural, as well as residents.”
