River Protection Workgroup

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
March 10, 2008

River Protection Workgroup Kicks off Public Process

Established by the Southwestern Water Conservation District ("SWCD") and the San Juan Citizens Alliance ("SJCA"), the River Protection Workgroup (RPW) is starting a series of community meetings to look at important stream and other values and their protection for Hermosa Creek, north of Durango. Everyone is welcome to attend. These meetings are a separate process from the San Juan Public Lands Center Draft Management Plan and Hermosa Wilderness proposal.

The first Hermosa Creek RPW meeting will be April 8, 2008 from 6:30 to 8:30 p.m. at the La Plata County Fairgrounds -- Extension Building, 2500 Main Avenue. To provide background information, enclosed with this press release is an information sheet about the RPW.

Through this Hermosa Creek initiative, a local workgroup will engage interested community members in a collaborative process to examine ways to protect important natural stream values by a variety of means (which could include the Wild and Scenic Rivers Act, Colorado In-Stream- Flow Program, special federal or state legislation, local government protection, or a no action alternative) while allowing water development to continue. Participants are asked to commit to attending approximately 10 to 12 meetings over the course of a year.

The local workgroup will follow a three-phased framework. First, background information will be shared. Next, values (social, economic, natural and cultural) will be discussed, together with current stream protections in place. Third, a range of potential options will be developed for protecting important Hermosa Creek values and discussed in-depth. Through consensus building and other decision tools, the workgroup will reach conclusions and may decide to develop action plans. A report of the workgroup’s activities will be widely disseminated. Action items will be documented, with partnerships potentially emerging for implementation.

The local workgroup organizational principles include:

Anyone with an interest who attends workgroup meetings has a seat at the table and is considered a stakeholder.
Through dialogue, the process aims to design future actions that meet Hermosa Creek needs identified by the diversity of stakeholders.
Participants are asked to respect all opinions, even if they do not agree with them.
Using all available resources, accurate facts will be presented and discussed and common understandings developed.
Meetings will be highly interactive, using collaborative and consensus approaches. Negotiations among stakeholders with various viewpoints may occur as needed to move forward.
The process will be transparent and open. The workgroup will share the tools needed for creative problem solving.

Information will be made available to the participants and public, including information sheet(s), meeting summaries, glossaries of terms, available river protection tools, and other information both as requested and as provided by participants. A Web site will be functioning the week of March 24th. This effort is separate from the San Juan Public Lands Center Draft Management Plan Revision ("Draft Plan") proposed Hermosa Creek Wilderness Area; the discussions related to mountain biking in wilderness areas and meetings and the formal comment period for the Draft Plan. The River Protection Workgroup has been working since late 2006 to launch this regional effort to protect stream values by a variety of means (which could include the Wild and Scenic Rivers Act, Colorado In-Stream Flow Program, special federal or state legislation, local government protection, or a no action alternative) while allowing water development to continue. Hermosa Creek values and their protection are the first to be reviewed. Local workgroups will form for other streams in the future.

Contacts: For more information, contact Bruce Whitehead, SWCD (970-247-1302 or water@frontier.net) or Chuck Wanner, SJCA (970-259-3583 or cwanner@frontier.net). A Web site with information sheets, maps, contacts, documents, meeting schedules and information can be found at: www.ocs.fortlewis.edu/riverprotection (beginning the week of March 24th ).

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