Passage of the Hermosa Creek Watershed Protection Act is vital to the interests of Colorado’s human and wildlife populations. Passage would protect the 100,000-acre Hermosa Creek watershed, including 37,000 acres as wilderness.

Hermosa Creek is a tributary of the Animas River and critical to the health of Durango’s drinking water. Maintaining the health of the surrounding watershed is essential to maintaining a healthy Hermosa Creek.

Healthy watersheds containing wilderness-quality lands provide essential ecosystem services, including maintaining water quality and quantity essential to sustaining fisheries.

In times of drought, healthy landscapes are more resilient to drying and thus provide more reliable sources of water for agriculture and human consumption.

Hermosa Creek watershed encompasses a wide variety of natural communities that provide resources for a high diversity native wildlife, including birds such as wild turkey, northern goshawk and black swift; mammals including deer, elk and lynx; and fish such as cutthroat trout.

This Colorado landscape is one of those few, last remaining places deserving to be protected for now and future generations.

Delia G. Malone Roaring Fork Audubon Society

Redstone