As a participant in the Hermosa Creek working group, I am excited about the prospects of legislation being passed to protect the Hermosa Creek watershed. I have been surprised by the various letters to the editor vilifying Rep. Scott Tipton relative to his amendment to the Hermosa bill.

If my civics teacher was correct, once a senator or representative submits a bill, the specific senatorial and house committees have the ability and authority to negotiate changes, so that various members can come to a compromise and vote the bill out of committee for support by the larger bodies. If, the committee can’t agree, the bill either isn’t voted out of committee, or it is given a no vote. Either way, the bill dies.

Rep. Tipton and Sen. Michael Bennet introduced nearly identical bills into their respective chambers. The House Committee on Natural Resources took up the bill. The Senate has yet to act on this legislation. While the version that came out of the House committee may look different on paper, the effect on the ground would be very similar. The issue of how best to protect the Hermosa Creek watershed has been discussed for years. The Hermosa bill benefits our community and our public land in many ways.

Mountain bikers, fisherman, motorized trail users, environmentalists, ranchers, water users and other user groups came together in drafting the bill. It was amended because of an issue at Molas Pass. The San Juan community commissioners, the snowmobile community and several environmental organizations asked both elected officials to include the Molas Pass area in the Hermosa Creek legislation.

Sen. Bennet and Rep. Tipton responded to the request, and Molas Pass was added to the bill to insure that snowmobiling could continue to take place in the Molas area. Many want to see the Hermosa bill passed into law, the watershed protected and the activities we identified as critical to the area maintained. Let’s not blow the opportunity to gain a tremendous win because of some false narrative that claims the legislative process is strictly local.

Gary Wilkinson

Durango