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Big vote expected on Hermosa Act

Full Senate plans to weigh in Friday

With a procedural victory Thursday in the U.S. Senate, protection for the Hermosa Creek watershed is within an expected favorable Senate vote and a presidential signature from becoming law.

A full Senate vote is expected Friday on the National Defense Authorization Act. It then would go to President Barack Obama.

The defense bill has a number of land-protection bills added to it, including the Hermosa Creek Watershed Protection Act, co-sponsored by Colorado’s U.S. Sens. Michael Bennet and Mark Udall. Rep. Scott Tipton, R-Cortez, sponsored the bill in the House, which passed it Dec. 4.

Some Republicans objected to inclusion of land bills in the defense act, but Senators voted 85-14 on Thursday morning to end debate on the bill and move to a full vote.

Sixty-eight unrelated bills are included in the defense bill pertaining to the use of federal lands. Objections came from Sen. Tom Coburn, R-Oklahoma, and a few other Republicans to a provision to designate 250,000 acres of new wilderness.

Bennet, D-Colorado, recognized in a speech Wednesday on the Senate floor that the lands package is an unrelated inclusion and alluded to dysfunction in Congress.

“I think the Hermosa Creek bill could have passed by unanimous consent years ago as a stand-alone bill,” Bennet said, “or as part of another smaller bipartisan bicameral package that didn’t have to wait almost six years while local communities all across the country have been left in limbo.”

Jimbo Buickerood, a member of the Hermosa Creek Workgroup and public-lands coordinator of the San Juan Citizens Alliance, wrote in an email that the workgroup’s approach – which included input from numerous interests – was the best method. Everyone from hunters and anglers, snowmobilers, water districts, mountain bikers and timber-industry representatives were involved in crafting the bill.

“We believed it was the best and right way to move forward, and soon, we will see if our approach has proven to be successful,” Buickerood wrote Thursday.

Bennet told the Senate that the grassroots bill came from political parties working together “to cement a long-term plan for their community’s future.”

He also mentioned that in 2011 he brought his wife and children to Southwest Colorado for a hike along the Hermosa Creek Trail with members of the diverse workgroup. They hiked for about a mile before taking a break in a meadow.

“I think the people in that meadow set out to prove that people in this country can still work together and set an example for the United States Congress,” he said.

The Hermosa Creek Watershed Protection Act would grant protective status to more than 100,000 acres north-northwest of Durango.

The act would create 37,236 acres of wilderness in the western portion. There would be a 68,289-acre “special management area,” with the northern chunk to be left as is, dirt roads and all. The eastern part, 43,000 acres, would be protected as a roadless area, but it still would allow mountain bikes and motorcycles.

Going forward into the 114th Congress, Bennet said that more wilderness bills should be collaborated on directly.

“Once again, I’m strongly supportive of the package, and I urge my colleagues to vote yes,” Bennet said. “But in the new Congress, we ought to hit the reset button and truly honor the intent of the Wilderness Act, which President Johnson signed into law 50 years ago, by passing more wilderness bills.”

The defense bill would authorize the training and equipping of moderate Syrian rebels for two years, and it would provide $5 billion for the fight against Islamic extremists.

The bill would provide core funding of $521.3 billion for the military, including about $8 billion in additional authority and $63.7 billion for overseas operations in Afghanistan and Iraq.

The Associated Press contributed to this report. johnp@durangoherald.com igheorghiu@durangoherald.com. Iulia Gheorghiu is a student at American University in Washington, D.C., and an intern for The Durango Herald.

Dec 12, 2014
Senate passes Hermosa act
Dec 4, 2014
House passes Hermosa Creek Watershed Act


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