Indian Peaks Group Conservation Committee

Draft Minutes

June 1, 2005

PRESENT: Kirk Cunningham, Billie Gutgsell, Bev Baker, Charles Hamlin, Deirdre Butler, Justin Reilly, and Linda Batlin.

1. CURRENT ALERTS

Please see the attached files for the following alerts:
* text file containing an alert from the Western Organization of Resource Councils on the good and bad aspects of the Senate Energy Bill.
* text file containing an alert about the State of Colorado's response to the Bush regulation doing away with the Clinton-era Roadless Rule. Note that Governor Owens has not yet signed the legislation mentioned in this alert. Hopefully, he will.

2. CITY OF BOULDER, URBAN WILDLIFE PLAN UPDATE - Billie Gutgsell.

The Plan at this stage is not a full plan for urban wildlife, but merely Phase I of a process that will include discussions about a philosophy of approach to urban wildlife, a prairie dog survey of the whole urban area of Boulder, and two public meetings. There will not be a stakeholders' group. There has not been a survey of prairie dog colonies in Boulder since the 1980's. The philosophy of approach to urban wildlife will be addressed first by the Boulder Environmental Advisory Board, so we need to find out when the topic will be on their agenda, and show up. Other cities nearby like Lafayette and Broomfield have an established policy with respect to prairie dogs, which has killing as not the last resort. There has been a story in the Denver Post recently about the conflict between Castle Rock's policy of the town as a wildlife sanctuary which has begun to clash with local property owners over prairie dogs specifically. Chuck Hamlin said that in Lafayette, rabbits were at least as big a perceived pest as prairie dogs.
The overarching question is what city, if any, has a comprehensive wildlife policy that focuses on all the species that could be present in an urban area? Is there even any academic work along this line? Besides prairie dogs, and among non-game and "varmint" species, certainly raccoons, cervids, foxes, and non-prairie dog rodents are species numerous and important enough to also merit a policy.

3. WILDLIFE CORRIDORS ACROSS HIGHWAYS.

Monique and/or Julia from the Southern Rockies Ecosystem Project have developed a video on a plan for wildlife crossings on I-70. The Wildlife Committee will try to get a copy to view for the next ConsComm meeting. Kirk will see if the Club's SW Office has a video player.

4. OPEN SPACE VISITOR MANAGEMENT UPDATE.

A recent editorial in the Daily Camera complained that the Open Space and Mountain Parks Dept. was proposing to shut off access to a trial leading to the Beech property north of Boulder because a rare plant was blooming on lands adjacent to part of the trail. The editorial's point was that these plants had survived for years on patches of land right beside Highway 36, so how would human visitor traffic affect them? Kirk asked Justin to inquire of the Open Space Dept. more detailed reasons why they had done this.

5. WELD COUNTY ROAD 7 EXPANSION ONTO ST. VRAIN STATE PARK.

I have been waiting for weeks for the State Parks Dept. to reply to a letter I sent them asking several questions about the State's policy with respect to the Weld County Rd. 7 project. Finally, I received a letter from Regional Manager David Giger, stating as follows:

"Colorado State Parks continues to strongly believe that the Weld County decision to continue with the work to construct a roadway across and through St. Vrain State Park will irreversibly harm the natural resources of the corridor and impact the quality of life for future generations of Coloradoans,

Colorado State Parks recognizes that Weld County holds a deeded reservation along the section line through St. Vrain State Park - the Weld County Road 7 alignment, current and proposed. The reservation contains a right-of-way for a 60 foot-wide county road. State Parks continues to discuss with Weld County the impacts of the proposed roadway on the park and the natural resources, as well as other possible locations off-site for a roadway that can help Weld County to meet their growth issues...."

Following receipt of this letter, I went to the project web site
(www.wcr7.com) and registered the following comments:

"As the Sierra Club Colorado chapter's Conservation and Water Quality Chair, I would urge Weld County and the Planning Consultants to work closely with the Colorado State Parks Dept. to come up with a WCR7 road alignment that does minimal damage, or better NO damage, to the St. Vrain State Park. According to a recent communication from David Giger at State Parks, the agency is still opposed to the road alignments that you presented to my colleague Steve Welter and I at our meeting a couple months ago.

To reiterate the Sierra Club's position:
1. The rationale for the project is suspect and/or weak, since the County has adopted few meaningful controls on growth along the I-25 corridor. The rationale for the part of the larger project that crosses the St. Vrain River is even weaker. None of the reasons that we heard at our meeting sounded very compelling, given that upgrading the WCR7/Route 66 intersection would allow any developments north of the St. Vrain to have access to the interstate highway [instead of coming south to highway 119]. 2. Whatever the supposed justification, we view the driving of a highway through a State Park, purchased in part with public monies from a variety of sources, to be unacceptable. We are quite convinced that any highway, especially an at-grade highway, will not only adversely affect the present and potential biological resources of the Park, but will certainly make the recreational component less manageable for management and less enjoyable for visitors.

Thank you for your attention to these comments."

Anyone else that would like to make comments on this project should go to the web site and do so. Apparently, as the site says, Weld County is in discussions with other agencies and future project public meetings are on hold.

6. NATIONAL FOREST MANAGEMENT ISSUES.

The Forest Service has solicited our assistance in closing some existing OHV roads in the West Magnolia area, directly west of Boulder. Adriana Raudzens from the SW office, Roz McClellan (the Chapter's OHV issues maven) and I are going to evaluate a potential project on June 22 during the day. If anyone else has an interest and would like to come along, please let me know. Adriana believes that carefully chosen projects of this type should be an important part of the Sierra Club's public lands-related activity in Colorado.

7. ANNOUNCEMENTS

IPG activists are encouraged to attend the Chapter's Training Retreat in Steamboat Springs, July 8 and 9. The Retreat will be held at the Colorado Mountain College in Steamboat and will go from 9 to 5 on Saturday the 9th. Food and lodging at the Mountain College is $100 for the weekend. The purpose of the Retreat is to teach volunteers how to carry out effective conservation campaigns. Please contact Chapter Chair Steve Welter (303-499-7261) ASAP for details.
* Two large Chapter-wide campaigns are in the planning stage, one on reducing the environmental impacts of oil and gas exploration and drilling and the second on protecting and enhancing water quality in Colorado. At its meeting on the 10th of July in Steamboat Springs, the Chapter Executive Committee will pick one (or perhaps both) of these campaigns as the Chapter's signature campaigns for next year. Although the first purpose of having a campaign structure is to allow the Chapter to apply for grant fund for an organizer, each campaign will also have a large volunteer component.

8. ADJOURNMENT.

The meeting was adjourned at about 8:40 pm.

Kirk Cunningham, Conservation Chair
Indian Peaks Group

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