Centennial Wetlands Native Aquatice Species Prospective Recovery Satellite Facility

• Description: Centennial Wetlands Native Aquatice Species Prospective Recovery Satellite Facility
• State: CO
• Basin: South Platte
• Date: 4/2/1995
• Title: Centennial Wetlands Native Aquatice Species Prospective Recovery Satellite Facility
• Water Supply Pro - Doc Type: Project Overview

Arndt: Acceptable alternative
Mark Arndt, Morgan County commissioner and chairman of a wildlife task force on on area
near Jackson Lake, points out during a meeting Thursday that a Colorado Division of Wildlife
purchase of land in the area could be an acceptable alternative to a federal wildlife refuge.
DOW purchase `win -win' idea
(Continued From Page 1)
landowners should be obligated to
give land for Denver people to
come out to the local area for recre-
ation and pointed to problems with
increased crime that would follow
such development.
He suggested that if they wanted
land for recreation they should buy
it.
Peterson disagreed with Yocum's
stance that private owners did a
better job managing wildlife than
DOW people, pointing to a project
near Snyder as an example.
He added that the population
was coming this way, and private
landowners would not be able to
keep people off everything.
Bob Kula of Fort Morgan said he
had seen improvement in wildlife
habitat in areas leased by DOW.
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Ser-
vice proposed a federal wildlife
refuge in 1993 but ran into heavy
opposition on both local and higher
levels, Budde said.
A task force of federal, state and
local interests was established to
study alternatives. Federal fish and
wildlife officials indicated that tak-
ing no action and leaving the area
as it was would not be acceptable.
However, Mark Arndt, Morgan
County commissioner and chair-
man of the task force, said that fed-
eral officials indicated that state
DOW purchase of property and
some state wildlife easements
elsewhere in the area could be an
acceptable alternative to a federal
refuge.
Two area residents, Richard Neb
of Wiggins and Don Christensen of
Weldon, warned that having a
federal refuge would be more ob-
trusive than a state wildlife area.
Neb, a former county commis-
sioner, said the state division has
been fair to deal with.
'The federal government does
not care," he asserted. 'They're af-
ter one thing. That's water rights.
They don't care who they step on."
He said that the federal agency
promised payment in lieu of taxes
but those often dried up after a
year or two, affecting county fund-
ing and money for such things as
local fire protection districts.
State funding_ into such local enti-
ties would be more stable, it was
indicated.
Christensen, who battled the U.S.
Bureau of Reclamation over the
now - defunct Narrows Reservoir
project that would have turned
much of the Weldon Valley into a
lake along the South Platte, said
that the federal agency was looking
for water to increase flows to crane
refuge areas in Nebraska. He also
pointed to concerns over water
quality.
H warned that while U.S. Fish
and Wildlife officials said they
would not take land by condemna-
tion, they would have a say in the
way people farm.
Restrictions could be imposed on
such practices as burning ditches to
clear weeds and spraying crops
with herbicides and insecticides.
Such bans could drive many
farmers out of business, he said.
Christensen asserted that area
landowners would be a lot better
off with the Colorado Division of
Wildlife than with the U.S. Fish and
Wildlife Service.
F
J