Indian Peaks Group Conservation Committee

Minutes

March 1 2006

1. INTRODUCTIONS. Those present were Kirk Cunningham, Bev Baker, and Deirdre Butler

2. UPCOMING ROADLESS TASK FORCE MEETING AND PUBLIC
HEARING.

The next meeting of this body is Friday, March 17th (St. Patrick's Day!), on the CSU campus, Lory Student Center Ballroom. The meeting starts at 5 pm and public testimony will be taken starting at 7:50 pm. Each person will have exactly one minute to speak! This is not what one might call a citizen-friendly process, although various interest groups including environmentalists will be included in discussion panels at the beginning of the program. It is important that the Sierra Club, other environmental groups, and other groups with an interest in roadless lands have as many people present and speaking at the event as possible, because the motorized user groups have worked hard to get a good turnout. Of course, written comments can be submitted to the Task Force through the Keystone Center, which is facilitating the process. Extensive info with maps of current and citizen-proposed roadless areas, where to write and what to say, are all located on the website www.roadless.net.

3. SALES OF NATIONAL FOREST LANDS.

Sales of approximately 300,000 acres nationwide have been proposed by the Forest Service, and this proposal will be appearing in pending federal legislation. There are about 20,000 acres proposed for sale in Colorado. Although it has not been uncommon in the past for the Forest Service and BLM to dispose of lands by sale, this proposal is different in the following ways:
1) Sales were usually part of a land exchange package, i.e. the Federal agency would dispose of isolated or hard-to-manage tracts in return for getting isolated private parcels in the middle of federal lands, especially in wilderness and other high-value lands. There would be no net loss of land acreage or land value in the exchange, and each sale or exchange would be subject to the NEPA process. This proposal would simply sell lands for money (projected at around $800 million) in support of an ongoing rural public schools program supported in the past by federal Payment-in- Lieu-of-Taxes (PILT) payments or from the general treasury.
2) Excess lands were typically given to local governments for open space, parks, or similar public purposes as a first priority, then, in the absence of any government takers, to private parties. It is not clear how local governments are going to fare under the new proposal.
3) The list of "excess" lands submitted to the Bush Administration by Forest Service offices was created for a variety of purposes, not just land exchanges or sales, and information about the non-monetary values of parcels is not necessarily available. Active Forest Service administrative use sites are present on the list for Boulder County, for example.

Opposition to this proposal has come from a number of governmental and non-governmental entities, including Representatives and Senators from public lands states. Hopefully, this opposition will help to kill the proposal, but it does not hurt to write Senator Allard, in particular, to make sure his stated reservations about the proposal do not become support. For details, contact Kirk Cunningham
(kirk.cunningham@rmc.sierraclub.org) or wait for the alert that will be posted on this list soon. The comment deadline is March 30th.

4. WILDLIFE.

Deirdre is focusing now on the issue of raptor electrocutions on power poles, a significant source of mortality for large birds of this sort, and one that can be dealt with using relatively cheap alterations to the poles. This issue is the focus of the Colorado Division of Wildlife's Environmental Roundtable meeting on March 6th. Deirdre is working with the Colorado Hawking Club on this issue and on the issue of how many eggs they are allowed to take from raptor nests for raising for sport.

5. ISSUE SPECIALISTS AND OTHER ACTIVISTS ARE NEEDED
IN THE IPG.

* Open Space, both City and County
* People to assist present chairs in the areas of wilderness and National Forest management

6. ADJOURNMENT, 8:30 pm.

Kirk Cunningham,
Conservation Chair

Kirk Cunningham
977 7th St.
Boulder CO 80302
303-939-8519 / kmcunnin@juno.com

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