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<br />I <br /> <br />e <br /> <br />e <br /> <br />e <br /> <br />"Other efforts, such as the Great Lakes and the Chesapeake, centered <br />around a crisis," said Bonnie Pierce, a soil scientist with Fort Collins-based <br />Trees, Water and People. "The common thread out here is the drought. It's <br />causing problems with water availability and quality, and it's a fact of life in <br />the West." <br /> <br />Still, creating a multistate headwaters alliance likely will be more difficult <br />than such efforts in the East, partly because no single body of water would <br />serve as its focus and because Western states have fewer people and less <br />political clout. <br /> <br />Ayn Schmit, chief of the regional EPA program that oversees watershed <br />grants, said forming a Rocky Mountain states alliance is an admirable but <br />difficult task. <br /> <br />"The need this group is trying to address with their proposal is absolutely <br />valid," she said. <br /> <br />"But with the Great Lakes, it is really a shared ecosystem. Here it's streams <br />(in different states) that have complex problems in common." <br /> <br />Bancroft, of the Chesapeake Alliance, agreed, saying it would take a long- <br />term, regional campaign to create a successful headwaters alliance. <br /> <br />Still, Crane and others said the fledgling multistate coalition plans to pursue <br />the proposal and is hoping the Colorado Water Conservation Board will <br />endorse the proposal. <br /> <br />"If we could take a resolution to D.C. and tell them the major water policy- <br />making body in Colorado supports us - that would be big," Crane said. <br /> <br />smithj@RockyMountainNews.com or 303-892-5474 <br />Copyright 2004, Rocky Mountain News. All Rights Reserved. <br />