The community consensus on which Rep. Scott Tipton and Sen. Michael Bennet based the Hermosa Creek legislation has been recently challenged – Tipton’s bill was passed by the House Natural Resources Committee on Sept. 18, but only after the committee leadership insisted on major changes that undermine both the protection for the Hermosa watershed, and the community consensus itself.
By reordering some of the bill’s provisions, and outright changing others, protections for the watershed have been weakened. For example, in the Special Management Area portion of the bill, mining and economic development are put on equal footing with maintaining water quality and natural values. Also, instead of determining motorized and mountain bike trails in a management plan with local input – as strongly favored by local residents – the bill now locks the existing trail system in permanently. Other changes were made by the committee, yet stakeholders had less than 48 hours to analyze significant alterations to a proposal that was nearly five years in the making.
As an original member of the Hermosa Creek Workgroup, this was extremely disheartening to me.
To his credit, Tipton was able to remedy two of the most egregious changes, though a number of problems remain. It’s important to recognize that the changes to the bill came from the House Natural Resources Committee leadership – which routinely alters lands bills to further its own public lands agenda – and not Rep. Tipton. In other words, the Hermosa Creek bill is a victim of Washington meddling. I believe that Tipton honors the wishes of our community regarding Hermosa Creek – as does Sen. Bennet. The Hermosa bill can still be brought back to nearly its original form – and to what local stakeholders worked so hard to craft.
We urge Tipton to work with House leadership to accomplish that before a final vote. Likewise, we urge Bennet to work hard to maintain the bill’s integrity as it moves through the Senate. The community stands ready to support them both in bringing the locally crafted vision for Hermosa Creek to reality.
Jeff Widen, The Wilderness Society
Durango
