River Protection Workgroup Process Draft (2)

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DRAFT 02/12/07 RIVER PROTECTION WORKGROUP PROCESS Background: The San Juan Public Lands Center("SJPLC")organized a Governmental Water Roundtable("Roundtable")to seek to reach a common understanding among interested governmental entities concerning water related issues for the revised U.S. Forest Service/Bureau of Land Management Management Plan("Plan"). The Roundtable included representatives from area counties and cities; the Southwestern Water Conservation District; Colorado government agencies, including the Divisions of Wildlife and Water Resources and the Colorado Water Conservation Board; and the two Colorado Ute Indian Tribes. Active participants in the public monthly meetings of the Roundtable included representatives of local environmental groups and from the offices of Colorado's area Congressmen and Senators and state legislators. Among the issues reviewed extensively by the Roundtable was the SJPLC process for carrying out its mandate to review all streams within its jurisdiction for eligibility for Wild and Scenic River("WSR") designation. The SJPLC chose to proceed with a WSR suitability analysis in the EIS for the Plan. Because of the difficulties of obtaining Congressional enactment of WSR legislation, a number of Roundtable participants, including Anne Brown, Steve Fearn,Dan Merriman, Don Schwindt,Janice C. Sheftel, John B. (Barry) Spear, Mark Stiles, John Taylor, Chuck Wanner, Jeff Widen and Bruce Whitehead(the "Steering Committee") agreed to meet outside the Roundtable process to seek ways to protect the exceptional values of selected streams. Goal: For the following streams -the San Juan River, East and West Forks; portions of the Upper Animas,Piedra and Pine Rivers; Hermosa Creek; and, Upper Vallecito Creek- the River Protection Workgroup will seek to develop long term, reliable federal, state or other measures to protect Workgroup identified values of these streams, which may be in addition to outstandingly remarkable values under the WSR Act,while allowing needed water development to continue. River Protection Workgroup Composition: The Steering Committee and other stakeholders, including those identified by the Steering Committee,will meet to develop, for the selected streams, a joint understanding of river values,water needs, value protection mechanisms already in place and possible future value protection mechanisms. Because Workgroup meetings will be noticed and open to the public, additional stakeholders may become participants in the Workgroup Process simply through their continuing participation in the Workgroup Meetings. Role of Steering Committee: The Steering Committee will guide the Workgroup activities through a consensus process. The Workgroup activities and their implementation as listed below,represent the Committee's best initial identification of