Brief by Ed Quillen
Regional news – March 2003 – Colorado Central Magazine
Dry pocketbooks
It’s easy to see how drought has affected agriculture, which is one major Central Colorado industry. As for our biggest industry, tourism, some effects are quite obvious: if there’s not much snow, there won’t be many skiers.
But other effects are starting to appear. For instance, drought dried up about 200,000 acres of natural wetlands in the San Luis Valley last year.
At Christmas time, during the annual avian census conducted by the National Audubon Society, bird-watchers in 2002 found 38 species and 6,044 individual birds at the Alamosa-Monte Vista national wildlife refuges. A year earlier, they had counted 63 species and 21,104 birds. The Sand Dunes numbers dropped from 35 species to 28.
Fewer birds means fewer bird-watchers, and they’re an important part of the economy; the Monte Vista Crane Festival (March 7-9 this year) is a major event that brings in people and dollars.
Less water also means lower rivers, which translates into fewer floaters. According to figures released in February by the Colorado River Outfitters Association, there were only 320,000 rafting visits in the summer of 2002, a 39% decline from the 524,000 visits in 2001.
The drought may not explain all of the decline — those big wildfires on the national news last summer probably didn’t encourage people to visit Colorado — but its effect was still substantial.
For instance, there were no commercial trips down many rivers normally rafted: the Blue, Dolores, Lake Fork, North Platte, Piedra and Roaring Fork. On the Arkansas, the state’s most popular river, trips dropped from 252,000 to 139,000.
According to the industry, each dollar spent on a float trip is accompanied by another $1.50 spent on motel rooms and meals.
Some outfitters are preparing for this year’s anticipated low flow by buying smaller rafts, and others are going out of business.
Resurrecting RS-2477
In case you don’t follow public-land controversies closely, there’s an 1866 federal law, RS-2477, which allows counties and states to claim existing rights-of-way on federal lands.
To be claimed, the route must have been in use before the land was “reserved” by the federal government for some national purpose. That works out to 1976 for BLM land, about a century ago for national forests established as forest reserves, and the treaty date for Indian reservations, etc.
Under the Clinton Administration, establishing an RS-2477 claim usually meant going to court. But such claims may be easier to pursue under the Bush administration. Late last year, the Interior Department issued a simplified procedure for abandoning federal claims to land.
That might be a start on easing the RS-2477 procedure — the claim could be granted administratively by the BLM, rather than require a court procedure.
Moffat County Commissioners, in the northwest corner of Colorado, voted on Jan. 17 to claim several hundred miles of road (some of it not much more than a cowpath) on federal lands, including those in Dinosaur National Park.
To date, that’s about as far as it’s gone. John Lancelot, realty manager for the Colorado state office of the BLM, said that he has heard that changes are coming. But they haven’t arrived yet, he said, “and until we get rules from Washington on how to implement a new policy, we’ll follow the current one.”
Justified Shooting
Even though the victim was shot in the back, the police officer was acting in accordance with state law. That was the decision in Leadville from District Attorney Mark Hurlbert, who declined to file charges against the police officer.
There were no arguments about the basic elements of the New Year’s Eve shooting. Alfonso Flores was involved in a domestic dispute and wanted for an earlier altercation that day. He was riding in a pickup that pulled into a driveway. Leadville officer Rick Jandegian pulled in behind the pickup, and told Flores to get out and walk back with his hands up.
That’s where the versions start to differ.
Flores said he did so, with the gun in his raised left hand; then Jandegian told him to put the gun down, and he did, but Jandegian shot him in the back for no reason.
Jandegian said Flores did not put his hands up as ordered, but instead pulled his gun out of his pocket and began turning toward the policeman, making him believe that he was about to be shot by Flores — and that’s a situation where state law authorizes a peace officer to shoot.
The DA determined that the physical evidence supported Jandegian. Most telling was the position of the gun, which lay a few feet from the wounded man after the shooting. If it had been set down, as Flores claimed, then it would have been closer to him.
Flores faces a host of charges, most of them unrelated to the shooting; they range from domestic violence to three counts of second-degree kidnapping.
Aurora’s Thirsty
Aurora may seem a mere suburb on the east side of Denver, but it is actually Colorado’s third-largest city with 275,393 residents in 2000, putting it just behind Denver (554,636) and Colorado Springs (360,890). And like most Colorado cities, it wants more water.
One possible source was one of the older water rights in the Arkansas Valley — the High Line Canal, which has an 1869 priority date and irrigates about 22,500 acres east of Pueblo in the Rocky Ford area.
Aurora offered to lease the water from the farmers this summer for $11.25 million, and several farmers told the Pueblo Chieftain that they’d make more by leasing the water than by trying to grow crops during a drought.
The transfer’s plumbing and accounting would have been complicated. Aurora would get only the “consumptive use” of the water — the amount that crops take. It would also have to move the point of diversion upstream about 100 miles, so that the water could be pumped into South Park on the South Platte drainage that flows toward Aurora.
But the state engineer’s office has denied the request, based on a ruling from Attorney General Ken Salazar that the plan did not conform to a 2002 law which provides for such emergency transfers.
Meanwhile, Aurora is eyeing the Hallenbeck Ranch in Lake County as a reservoir site — assuming it can find water to store there.
That may explain why Aurora contributed to Leadville’s 125th birthday party on Feb. 8, paying for the band at the dance and hiring a sculptor to make a model of the 1895 Ice Palace.
Then again, maybe Aurora is just trying to be nice to its mountain neighbors. We might find out next year, when Buena Vista turns 125, or the year after that, when it’s Salida’s querquicentennial.
Artists wanted
The Town of Saguache wants a logo “which represents the uniqueness of our community,” and so they’re sponsoring a design contest, open to everyone. Entry forms are available at the town hall, the deadline is April 30, and there’s a limit of one per person.
We considered entering, since there are a lot of things we like about Saguache, such as its laid-back and generally serene environment. But the only way we could think of put- ting that on a logo was to show a dog sleeping on Fourth Street, and we doubt that’s what the town board has in mind.
Judicial shifts
District Judge John Anderson of Canon City retired at the end of 2002, and that means some changes in the 11th judicial district, which comprises Chaffee, Frémont, Park and Custer counties.
Anderson had already stepped down as the district’s chief judge, and that position was filled by Ken Plotz of Salida.
Charles Barton, a former prosecuting attorney, was appointed to Anderson’s seat by Gov. Bill Owens (citizens get to vote on retention at the next general election, and then every six years).
Since the Upper Arkansas Water Conservancy District was organized in the Canon City division of the judicial district, Barton will make the appointments to the water board, Plotz said.
Anderson was also a water judge for Division 2 (the Arkansas drainage) in the state’s separate water court system. That position will now be filled by Dennis Maes of Pueblo.