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Comments to SWSI, November 3, 2003, by John Wiener 3 <http://www.ids.colostate.edu/projects/spmappresentationI>). The only problem I see with this is that isn't enough work like this being done all over! OBJECTIVE 5 - Support recreational needs A. This should explicitly note both intangible recreational values as fundamental to quality of life (see comment below on urban amenity values and agricultural legacy) and should also note tangible benefits. These include both increased real estate value from proximity to amenities and recreational opportunity, for local people, and tourism and visitor recreation as well. The enormous value of in"coming tourism is widely appreciated; one hears a variety of numbers, but 10 to 12 Billion per year seems possible, depending on the scope of what is counted. One other figure from USDA was almost $100 Billion, nationally, for a few kinds of outdoor recreation (see below), but there is little standardization in measures. This does not, however, count the benefits to local people, and it does not count the benefits from people retiring in a place because they like it, or building second homes in a place they like. This is a huge contributor to rural growth, and should be considered essential for future economic development in Colorado's non-metro area (see below). B. Why not money for flow timing, since it was mentioned at one of the meetings? Why isn't recreation buying the timing it wants? And why isn't agriculture selling timing? If you switch crops from corn to alfalfa in order to schedule flows when the rafters can sell rides, the farmer loses the difference in revenue between corn and alfalfa, and rafter gains ability to plan for higher flows during weekends and holidays. Predictability has value - maybe reservations can be sold ahead of time if it is sure that the water will be right. According to CSU enterprise budgets, for 2000, Northeastern CO, net receipts for irrigated alfalfa were $150 per acre, but in 2000 irrigated corn grain in Northeastern CO lost $45 per acre, or lost $61 per acre in the South Platte Valley, though dryland no"till corn made $101 per acre. And, sweet corn as a vegetable for humans made $2068 per acre. The sweet corn grower would presumably have no interest in switching to alfalfa, but the corn grain grower might have benefited from switching to alfalfa plus payments for water delivery timing. The costs and revenues for the rafting business are not reported as the agricultural generic information is, so it is not easily estimable how much benefit that industry could achieve from reorganized flows such that high water occurred on weekends, but perhaps the Roundtable representatives could supply some insight into how much capacity is on hand and unused. Also, it is unknown if advertising the high water would help use all the available capacity, and perhaps there could be some comment on that. There would be some limits on the manipulation of flows, clearly, for reasons of capacity to manage, in all parts of the system, as well as maintenance of the minimum flows needed, but testimony by rafting business people in other for a (e.g. Pueblo recreational in- channel flow application to CWeB) suggests that demand for rafting and kayaking is sensitive to the flow conditions. OBJECTIVE 6 - Provide for environmental protection Why not add a subhead on fostering and enhancing environmental improvement projects? The modification of the environment of Colorado is ubiquitous, and in some cases very destructive of present interests and preferences (see Baron, J., Ed., Rockv Mountain Futures. 2002, Island Press). The value of environmental qualities is usually assumed to be roughly correspondent to the altitude, with ski areas wanting to look as if they harbor a pristine environment, and lower- altitude farming and ranching areas are assumed to be contemptuous of non-commercial species. This caricature does no justice at all to the stewards of the majority of the land, and ignores the critical value of the environmental amenities which are driving rural growth and will play an increasing role in the future.