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  Home Page » News » Earth » Group Protect Hermosa Watershed

Group: Protect Hermosa watershed

River Protection team completes first of several corridor studies

by Dale Rodebaugh
Herald Staff Writer The Hermosa Creek watershed - 155,000 acres stretching from the north Animas Valley to just beyond Purgatory - deserves protection because of its sterling water quality and corresponding natural resources, including diverse flora and fauna and recreation, the River Protection Workgroup says.

A report outlining protective measures will be available to the public Feb. 8.

The workgroup steering committee formed in 2007 to involve anyone interested in protecting natural resources while allowing water-consuming development to continue. The committee membership includes water-use planners, environmentalists and government and tribal representatives. Hermosa Creek is the first of five similar studies to be conducted with the same goal in mind.

“Participants decided that the Hermosa Creek watershed is a special place and said they want to work together to protect outstanding water quality," Marsha Porter-Norton, who coordinated 21 months of workgroup meetings, said Wednesday. “They rallied around a common goal to find solutions to satisfy as many interests as possible."

About 40 participants gathered for a typical meeting. Steve Fearn, a Southwestern Water Conservation District board member and workshop participant, is pleased with the outcome of the study.

“It was a very productive process," Fearn said. “We had a wide range of participants who listened to the viewpoint of others for almost two years."

A wildland paradise, the Hermosa Creek drainage contains the largest chunk of roadless land under U.S. Forest Service jurisdiction in Colorado. Abundant wildlife, water and trails attract heavy all-year use by hikers, bikers, campers, hunters and anglers, kayakers, skiers and motorized winter-sports enthusiasts.

The water quality of Hermosa Creek is widely admired and protected.

b The Colorado Water Quality Control Commission has given it the top rank of Outstanding Water of the State. Only the east fork of the creek ranks lower but receives the next highest ranking.

b A dozen Hermosa Creek tributaries - in addition to main stream itself - have Colorado Water Conservation Board decrees (designated flows to protect the environment).

Paradoxically, while water quality is the original focus of the studies, the forthcoming recommendation on Hermosa Creek look at land use.

“We're going to circle back on water quality when all the area studies have been done, which will be about 2012," Meghan Maloney, the San Juan Citizen Alliance water-issues coordinator, said Wednesday. “We want water quality to be considered as a whole. The question of a wild-and-scenic-river designation would be considered at that time."

Maloney said a letter is being drafted to ask U.S. Rep. John Salazar, D-Manassa, to introduce land-protection legislation.

The land-use recommendations call for a “special management area" of about 150,000 acres that would shelter 50,000 acres of designated wilderness. The San Juan National Forest would prepare the management plan. Specific recommendations focus on delineation of boundaries, roadless rules, mineral exploitation, logging and motorized travel.

Perhaps one of the key issues is the fate of 160 acres, privately held, that are part of a proposed land exchange between the Forest Service and Tamarron Properties.

The issue was purposely not considered because it involves private and economic issues, Maloney said.

The next watershed to be studied involves the east and west forks of the San Juan River, followed by the upper Animas River, the middle and east forks of the Piedra River and the Pine River/Vallecito Creek.

daler@durangoherald.com

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