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Wending its way through the majestic canyon is the area's namesake, perennial stream with flows originating from snow run-off in the upper its watershed. The waterway is largely unmodified by water diversions, directly into the Colorado River. Deep Creek, a elevations of and empties Since 1990, resource managers, local officials and concerned citizens in the surrounding communities have had an extensive dialogue about how best to manage this magnificent resource. In 1995, the Forest Service and the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) jointly determined that Deep Creek was eligible for Wild and Scenic River designation. The 7350-acre area proposed for designation is managed in part by both these agencies_ Congressman Scott McInnis (R CO) introduced H.R. 2963 in September after wide-ranging conversations with local officials, local environmentalists and other interested citizens and citizen groups. Congressman McInnis, who grew up near Deep Creek and spent considerable time hiking there as a boy, drew the wilderness boundaries in H.R. 2963 along the canyon rim of Deep Creek, the same boundaries recommended by a consortium of Colorado-based environmental advocates in 1998. While some local environmental groups have since modified their 1998 Deep Creek position by advocating an expansion of the boundaries beyond the canyon rims, the Garfield and Eagle County Commissions, the two counties immediately impacted by the designation, have endorsed the bill and its rim-to-rim boundary. COMMITTEE ACTION H.R. 2963 was introduced on September 25, 2001. The bill was referred to the Committee on Resources, and within the Committee to the Subcommittee on Forests and Forest Health and the Subcommittee on National Parks, Recreation and Public Lands. On March 20, 2002, the Resources Committee met to consider the bill. The two Subcommittees were discharged from further consideration of the bill by unanimous consent. Congressman McInnis offered an amendment in the nature of a substitute to (1) mandate that the Forest Service and the Colorado Army National Guard meet within 180 days following enactment to review the Memorandum of Understanding governing the conduct of high altitude aerial training exercises within the designated area and consider alternative locations outside the wilderness area if an alternative location is identified and agreed upon by the relevant parties; (2) authorize the Forest Service to purchase from willing sellers water rights upstream of the wilderness area to protect the riparian values of the wilderness area, and that these rights would be held by the state of Colorado as part of the Colorado Instream Flow Program; and (3) trigger formal wilderness designation only after one of the following occur: (A) upstream conditional rights described in the legislation are canceled or abandoned; (B) upstream absolute water rights described in the legislation are conveyed to the Colorado Water Conservation Board for conversion to instream flows under Colorado water law; or (C) the Colorado Water Conservation Board has made a final decision as to the adequacy of instream flows in Deep Creek. Congressman Mark Udall (0 CO) offered an amendment to the amendment in the nature of a substitute to establish an alternative trigger mechanism, under which the Secretaries of Agriculture and the Interior could formally designate the wilderness area only after (1) all upstream conditional rights described in the legislation have been abandoned; and (2) the Colorado Water Conservation Board has augmented the existing State-held instream flow right to a _".J"",~~ ".,_..~l_~,,", ""'::~x.;"",,,,,_ ~,1,_1 ~x.;"" _",~"c;.;,r...__=~.. __~",1~~-,-", ~...."l.>;-.""":",_],,~,, ---;J;i:!,,,.