Vegetative Management Impacts and the Platte

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-3- assumptions for each vegetation type. However, overall trends indicate that flows may stabilize or continue to decline during the first increment of the program." The Colorado water users would argue as follows. The first Troendle report (examining the logging for water option to produce water) determined that different forest management practices could produce up to 37,000 acre-feet. Clearly the Forest Service's vegetative management practices do impact the amount of water that will ultimately reach the Platte River. Second, in Coalition for Sustainable Resources, Inc. vs. the Forest Service, in determining that the lawsuit was not ripe, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the lOth Circuit relied on the fact that the Forest Service is a"cooperating agency" of the Cooperative Agreement, and relied on that fact to hold that the Forest Service would be examining this issue as part of its participation of the Program. The Colorado water users would also state that it is patently unfair for the State of Colorado to have to pony up its proportionate share of water, money and land, when the Forest Service's actions (which could result in substantial depletions) are allowed to occur without having to pony up any water or money. Also, the Forest Service's actions do sometimes cause depletions, such as acting to suppress fires and acting to suppress pests. Those are actions that the Forest Service undertakes, and they should be responsible for depletions associated with those actions. Colorado water users, moreover, would argue that one of the milestones in the Program document provides: Milestone W-9: The FWS will work with the USFS and the states to develop a new depletion plan for USFS lands in the Platte River Basin. This will include establishing a baseline against which the impacts, including channel stability, of past and future vegetation management will be measured. By September 1, 2001, the FWS and/or the USFS will work with the states to identify what types of water related activities will be covered and the FWS and/or the USFS will determine what will be covered by the plan for new depletions. By September 1, 2001, the FWS and/or the USFS will conduct an analysis of potential effects the plan may have on pulse flow frequency and magnitude. At the very least the Forest Service should stick by this commitment, and it hasn't even yet established a baseline for the South Platte River, against which the impacts will be measured. The proposed solution I have had meetings with Colorado's team, the Governance Committee, and the Forest Service staff, and we have started to develop a proposal that may address everyone's concerns. The proposed solution includes three aspects. First the Federal Depletions plan cannot state that the Forest Service Vegetative Management Plan addresses the issue. Rather, the Federal Depletions plan should indicate that that document is merely the Forest Service description of how it views the vegetative management issue. There should be a disclaimer in the Federal Depletions Plan that the States disagree with the Forest Services' description of the vegetative management issue, and that the States' in no way accept the statements in the vegetative management plan as true and/or binding on the States, and it does not finalize the issue of what types of water related activities will be covered by the plan for new Flood Protection • Water Project P1aiulutg and Finance • Stream and Lake Protection Water Supply Protection • Conservation Planiung