Thanks for the story (Herald, Dec. 17) about how Trout Unlimited’s pragmatic conservation approach helped secure lasting protections and restoration for the Fraser and Upper Colorado rivers, which have been depleted and damaged for years by transmountain diversions of water from the West Slope to the Front Range.
The agreements that our group helped to negotiate with Denver Water and the Northern Colorado Water District are landmarks in the new trend toward finding collaborative, common ground water solutions.
Trout Unlimited is proud of the significant river protections contained in the agreements as well as an innovative, long-term monitoring and adaptive management process (called “Learning by Doing”) that requires stakeholders to work together to ensure the future health of the river. Bottom line: Without this agreement, Denver Water and Northern would have had legal carte blanche under Colorado water law to divert the river to death.
Instead of easy talk from the sidelines about “saving the Colorado,” we actually rolled up our sleeves and did the long, hard work of hammering out an agreement. Is it perfect? Of course not. But Trout Unlimited believes these agreements represent a major victory in ensuring a healthy future for the Colorado River.
Water is not always a zero-sum game. There are many cases across Colorado where, by listening to each other, conservation groups, irrigators, water providers and other stakeholders can find common-sense solutions that ensure future water supplies while preserving Colorado’s river health, wildlife and outdoor recreation economy.
We’ve entered a new era of water scarcity in the West – one that requires listening and collaboration, not knee-jerk reactions and conflict. In the real world, compromise isn’t a dirty word.
That mature, good-faith effort to find common ground is the best way to find lasting solutions to our looming water challenges.
Drew Peternell, director of Colorado Water and Habitat Project
Trout Unlimited
Salida
