WSP12262 - Laserfiche WebLink

Home Browse Search

~ ~ ~ ~ \~-l(" Outdoor Empire fly BOB SAlLE Sparks flies Off fhe Handle A CONFLICT WITHIN the Colorado Department of Natural Resources over' planned federal water-development proj- ects has prompted the head of one state board to accuse the Colorado Division of Wildlife of "deliberate deception" and "extortion." The deception-extortion charge was made by Felix Sparks, director of the Colorado Water Conservation Board. Sparks made the remark in a memo- randwn to board members recently. The memo discussed the planned Savery-Pot Hook dam and irrigation development on the Little Snake River drainage in north- , western Colorado and southern Wyoming. The $70 million develoumeJ1t is one of several Bureau of Reclamation projects on the Western Slope which Gov. Dick Lamm and his administration are sup- porting, on the premise that future energy or industrial developers will get the water if farmers and stockmen don't. And while Sparks backs Lamm's think- ing, the Colorado Division of Wildlife doesn't. The division notes that Savery- l Pot Hook will destroy the habitat now supporting as much as 25 per cent of the state's antelope, as well as habitat fOf other important species such as sage grouse and elk. THE HASSLE BETWEEN Sparks' water conservation board and the wildlife division over this issue is somewhat ironic, in that the board supports the division on the division's efforts to secure minimum stream. flows on several state lJtreams. (See story about the crystal River elsewhere in this section.) In any event, Sparks has been fru.strat- ed by opposition to Savery-Pot Hook from the wildlife division and other environ- mental concerns. That frustration led to thishlastinhismemo: "The thrust of the arguments against the project were to the effect that increased irrigation would substantially reduce the big game land sage grouse populations of Moffat County. This ar- gwnent was effectively CQuntered by life- time residents of the area who testified that both big-game animals and sage grouse tend to concentrate on irrigated lands, "'I1tis fact is known to every farmer throughout Colorado and to the Division of Wildlife, Nevertheless, the division con- tinues to perpetuate a deliberate decep- tion, apparently as a form of extortion to increase its land holdings. "The admitted purpose of this mooeu- vering is to increase the killing of animals and birds. The irony of the situa- tion is that various' sO-called environ- mentaJ organizations seem to enthusi- Jlstically support the annual ritualized de. struction of native wildlife. It is quite dif. ficult to comprehend how the killing of animals and birds enhances the natural environment. " WHEW! THERE ARE so many distor- tions and misconceptions and so much misinformation in this outburst that it is har<! to know where to begin to comment. But here are the facts: -Some 16,000 acres of mostly feederal and state land will be taken by Savery- Pot Hook, and that's where the Wildlife lives. With habit<1t at a premium everywhere, much of the displaced wilcf.. life won't survive. -Accordingly. the Colorado Division of Wildlife has asked to be given land as mitfgatioD of the loss, with the land to be paid for by the Bureau of Reclamation, In other words, an inviolate place for wildlife to live. This and other mitigative requests are concurred in by the division, the Colorado Wildlife Commission and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. (Thus, the controversy becomes a kind of in-house squabble at both state and federal levels.) -Wildlife such as antelope and sage grouse don't live on irrigated pastures and plowed fields. They occasionally "crncentrate no" these places to'feed, it food is inaccessible Of unavailable else- where. But their stanle diets and protec- tive cover are found in wild terrain. By the reasoning of Sparks and his supposed supporting cast of "every farmer throughout Colorado," the eastern plains should be full of sage grouse, and the best antelope habitat in the country wol:lld be in the grain fields of Iowa. -Of course, the wildlife division would like to increase its land holdings. That', the only way tG guarantee that the divis- ion can protect wildlife: -The annual harvest 01 small. pe:rcent~ ( ages Gf wildlife populations by hunters can a in no way be equated with wiping out that wildlife throug-h habitat destruction. tl Losses caused by hunters (whose money tl is used to manage wildlife) are offset by t! annual wildlife reproduction; without b habitat, there can be no reproduction. '\Ii -If Felix Sparks has spent almost 20 years heading a state conservation board and still doesn't "comprebend" the basics of wildlife management, he isn't as sharp as we thought he was. Maybe Governor Lamm, himself a hunter, could give Sparks some tips in thJs area. SPARKS LATER conceded to this col- umn that he can appreciate the fact that the Division of Wildlife has a responsi- bility which isn't the same as his own. But he said he is "ff1.istrated" that a project originally given "top priGrity" by the state water authorities as far back as 1938 should now be hampered by "last- minute" opposition from wildlife inter- ests. And he said that the Lamm administra- tion is supporting the Western Slope agri- cultural water projects in part because of the old fear that Gne must "use it (the water) or lose,it," Also, be said, advisefs to. President- elect Jimmy Carter have recommended that the Carter administration virtually "cut off" all federal ftmding to the seven water projects now being planned as part of the continuing Colorado River Storage Project, including Savery-Pot Hook. I "We're desperate to !t~t the contracts let on these projects," said Sparks, '.so the U.S. (government) can't back out."