Laserfiche WebLink
Between 7956 and 1964, Howard Zahniser <br />wrote 66 drafts of the Wilderness Act bill and <br />steered it through 18 hearings. He passed <br />away just five months before President <br />Lyndon Johnson signed the Act into law on <br />September 3, 1964. He is pictured here in <br />the Adirondacks about 1960. Courtesy of the <br />Zahniser family. <br />Collbran Project east of Grand Junction. <br />Even before approval of the project in <br />1952, Aspinall and federal engineers <br />already were working on a much larger <br />water development scheme and accompa- <br />nying legislative campaign. <br />The Colorado River Storage Project <br />(CRSP) proposed a series of six high dams <br />and seventeen companion structures on the <br />Colorado River and its upper basin tributar- <br />ies, many of the projects in Colorado. <br />One proposal, in particular, set the <br />stage for an historic clash between the <br />Reclamation promoters, led by now Interior <br />Committee Chairman Aspinall, and the <br />nation's growing conservation movement. <br />By the time it was concluded, the fight <br />over the proposed Echo Park Dam put <br />in place the momentum and points of <br />conflict that would lead to passage of The <br />Wilderness Act. <br />The dam as to have been built at the <br />stunning confluence of the Green and Yampa <br />rivers, between towering canyon walls in a <br />remote, little known portion of Colorado's <br />Moffat County. Complicating the proposal, <br />and motivating conservationists, was the <br />dam's location inside Dinosaur National <br />Monument, managed by the National Park <br />Service, and that the reservoir would inun- <br />date portions of the monument. <br />Originally established to protect signif- <br />icant collections of fossils, the monument <br />had been expanded twice to include some <br />of the more colorful and diverse landforms <br />in America. The confluence boasts sweep- <br />ing bends around towering sandstone <br />cliffs, a broad, rolling park of lower rock <br />formations and high desert forests. <br />The prospect of building a new dam <br />inside a component of the National Park <br />System rallied advocates of wilderness <br />protection as few proposals had. Led by <br />the Sierra Club's zealous director, David <br />Brower, and by The Wilderness Society's <br />Howard Zahniser, conservationists used <br />two basic arguments in their attempt to <br />stop the project: economy and preserva- <br />tion of special places. <br />The groups used the Bureau of <br />Reclamation's own data that showed stor- <br />ing water elsewhere would be more effi- <br />cient and cost effective. In an important <br />turning point for the wilderness move- <br />ment, however, the advocates also suc- <br />cessfully made the point that certain lands <br />should be preserved in their natural and <br />untrammeled condition. <br />At Echo Park, such lands were found <br />in a National Park System area, but the <br />30 1 COLORADO FOUNDATION FOR WATER EDUCATION <br />debate launched the broader theme of <br />wildlands preservation for many different <br />public lands. <br />During five years of debate over the <br />CRSP, conservation groups untiringly <br />pressed those two themes — economy and <br />the preservation of special places. Along <br />the way, they honed their skills as research- <br />ers, lobbyists and expert witnesses. They <br />also greatly expanded their support with <br />growing memberships and finances. The <br />network of environmental organizations <br />developed a seasoned leadership team in <br />Brower and Zahniser and a collective sense <br />of confidence to take on a revived cam- <br />paign for wilderness protection. <br />In 1956, President Dwight Eisenhower <br />signed into law the Colorado River Storage <br />Project —minus Echo Park Dam. That same <br />year, the first version of The Wilderness Act <br />was introduced in the United States Senate. <br />Removal of Echo Park Dam from the <br />CRSP had been confirmed earlier in the <br />year in an exchange of letters between <br />Colorado's Aspinall and The Wilderness <br />Society's Zahniser. Not coincidentally, <br />it was Zahniser's hand - written text that <br />became that first wilderness bill. <br />Over the next eight years, the two advo- <br />cates expertly refined and pressed their <br />polar views on wilderness preservation, <br />couched in terms of great mutual respect. <br />In September 1964, the Wilderness Act <br />became law with nearly equal parts from <br />each man's hand and sense of compromise. <br />The Wilderness Act itself included five <br />areas in Colorado —La Garita in the tow- <br />ering high country near Creede; Maroon <br />Bells - Snowmass, defining the wild country <br />near Aspen; Mount Zirkel and Rawah near <br />the Wyoming border; and the quintessential <br />West Elk, dramatically dividing the country <br />between Crested Butte and Paonia. <br />These were the more dramatic and <br />untouched gems among lands the Forest <br />Service had administratively protected. <br />Significantly, they also were places at the <br />top of watersheds. <br />That geographical theme continued <br />over the next 16 years, as 22 more wilder- <br />ness areas were added in Colorado. The <br />additional areas included Carhart's Flat <br />Tops in 1975 and Black Canyon of the <br />Gunnison — another National Park Service <br />area —in 1976. Every Colorado area desig- <br />nated through 1980, save two, was atop or <br />near the top of watersheds. <br />With little opportunity for water <br />impoundments or diversions above these <br />high country wilderness areas, conflict with <br />