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000482 MEMORANDUM TO: Members, Senate Agriculture, Natural Resources, and Energy Committee Members, House Agriculture, Livestock, and Natural Resources Committee Other Interested Persons FROM: James S. Lochhead, Executive Director Colorado Department of Natural Resour Patti Shwayder, Acting Executive DirectO Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment DATE: January 12, 1995 SUBJECI': Draft Native Species Protection Concept Paper . Enclosed for your consideration is a draft concept paper entitled "Preserving Colorado's Water Resources and Wlldlife Management Options Through Cooperative Partnerships to Conserve Native Aquatic Species." The issues discussed in this draft paper will be reviewed in more detail at a public workshop -on March 15, t99S. The public workshop will be sponsored by the Colorado Water Conservation Board, the Colorado Water Quality Control Commission, and the Colorado Wildlife CoIDDiission. You will be notified of workshop logistics, including the agenda and location, as March 15 draws near, but we encourage you to mark your calendar now. This draft concept paper is an out-growth of efforts by senior staff under our direction to more closely coordinate the water quality and water quantity management efforts of our respective departments. This draft is being circulated broadly in an effort to . initiate a dialogue regarding an extremely important environmental. and natural resources management issue facing Colorado today. The issue, discussed in the attached paper, involves the apparent decline of Colorado's native aquatic species and communities, as well as the possible regulatory consequences of this decline. - I'!l!iiI I ~ ~ ~ The attached concept paper considers the opportunity to develop voluntary, cooperative partnerships to evaluate the apparent decline and to plan and implement appropriate actions that can conserve the State's natural heritage while avoiding possible costly regulatory responses to this decline. Other approaches to this issue may also be available. However, any approach will ultimately be successful only if there is a shared consensus that it is the appropriate way to proceed: Therefore, we need input from the full spectrum of persons interested in these issues to determine whether the approach suggested in the attached paper, or something like it, is worth pursuing. We welcome and encourage your thoughts on how we can best address the issues raised in the attached draft discussion paper. Please contact Doug Robotham at the Colorado Department of Natural Resources, .1313 Sherman Street, Room 718, Denver, 80203, with your suggestions. I !"c'ii cc: Alan Salazar, Governor's Deputy Chief of Staff; Colorado Water Conservation Board Members; Colorado Water Quality Control Commission Members; Colorado Wildlife Commission Members