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January 27, 2011 Mr. Ted Kowalski Chief, Interstate and Federal Section Colorado Water Conservation Board 1313 Sherman Street, Room 721 Denver, CO 80203 Dear Mr. Kowalski, As project manager for the Upper Colorado River Wild and Scenic Alternative process, I am writing on behalf of the participating stakeholders and cooperating agencies to request funding from the Colorado Water Conservation Board Wild and Scenic Rivers Act Alternatives Fund. The Upper Colorado River Wild and Scenic Stakeholders Group (Stakeholders Group) has been working continuously since 2008 to develop an alternative management plan (AMP) for the mainstem of the Colorado River from Gore Canyon to the lower reaches of Glenwood Canyon, and we are now preparing a final draft of the AMP for submittal to the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) by their February 28, 2011 deadline 1. We are working closely with the BLM and the US Forest Service (USFS) to develop an acceptable alternative to Wild and Scenic designation for these stream reaches, and to provide the necessary information for inclusion in their Draft Resource Management Plans (DRMPs) and Draft Environmental Impact Statements (DEISs). The BLM and USFS have accepted all of our submittals to date, and both agencies are including our proposed alternative in their DRMP/DEIS documents. Having submitted the main tenets of an AMP and several updates to BLM and USFS over the past two years, we intend to complete the draft AMP by February 28th of this year. In order to accomplish this, we will continue to rely on the representative drafting committee to craft recommendations for approval by the full Stakeholder Group. The drafting committee consults the Stakeholder Group and several advisory workgroups in order to resolve technical issues as they arise. BLM's DRMP/DEIS documents are scheduled to be published in April, 2011. In a letter received January 24, 2011, the BLM informed the Stakeholder Group that February 28, 2011 is "... the absolute final date on which BLM can accept changes to what the group proposes under the stakeholder alternative in the published DRMP/DEIS." In addition, the BLM has requested written feedback from the Stakeholder Group no later than February 11, 2011. The USFS is following BLM's lead in the RMP revision process, and will incorporate the BLM's analysis and recommendations in their own DRMP/DEIS documents.