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<br />has an entire section of its staff devoted to wetlands conservation and has clearly documented the <br />need to conserve wetlands. The USFWS has been involved in wetlands protection, management, <br />and research through various federal statutory authorities for many years. A significant <br />percentage ofUSFWS staff; resources, plans, policies, and programs are directed at wetlands <br />conservation. The list goes on and on. Clearly, the need to conserve wetlands has received a lot <br />of attention and discussion. <br /> <br />The WI is not inconsistent with local, state, or federal government plans and policies, In fact, the <br />WI will advance the goals of many of these plans. The WI Selection Process incorporates the <br />very concept of consistency of projects with these plans. Furthermore, one of the main roles of <br />the Focus Area Committee is to address the issue of consistency with local plans and policies at <br />the actual local level. ATTACHMENT A is a list of related plans that have so far been identified <br />by the WI for use in the Project Selection Process. <br /> <br />2) Please describe the degree of opposition to the project <br /> <br />The WI will select projects that have no local opposition, or a minim~l degree of opposition. This <br />approach of generating grassroots support for a project at its inception is proven and has been <br />successful. On a statewide scale, the WI has no known opposition. The WI is a voluntary <br />approach to wetlands conservation that requires a willing-to-participate private land owner or <br />entity before any conservation effort is undertaken, <br /> <br />To adequately address the issue of consistency of the WI with other plans and policies is a major <br />undertaking. Because of the size and scope of the project, this aspect of the WI has received a lot <br />of attention and effort during the project design phase. The result was to incorporate this issue in <br />the Project Selection Process as described in ATTACHMENT J, the Requirements Filter and the <br />Significance Filter. A goal of the WP is to ascertain how the issue of consistency is being <br />addressed in the State with regards to everyone's wetland efforts. This requires that all of these <br />plans and policies be collected and made manageable by means of a data base or other method. It <br />is foreseen that the DOW will team up with its parent DNR to accomplish this. Such an <br />accomplishment would facilitate consistency in all wetlands conservation efforts. <br /> <br />C. Proiect is a Catalyst or has High Demonstration Value <br /> <br />The completion of the WI will contribute to other similar wetlands conservation efforts. It is a <br />fact that wetlands conservation in Colorado has not been as effective as it could have been. As <br />directed by its Long Range Plan, the DOW is asserting its leadership in the protection of wildlife <br />habitats, such as wetlands, and associated species. The WI may have been born of traditional <br />waterfowl/wetlands conservation efforts in the DOW, but quickly evolved and adapted to the new <br />challenges of wetlands conservation in the 1990's - all types of wetlands in Colorado need <br />conserving. By breaking new ground, by forming new partnerships, by utilizing new strategies <br />and techniques, the WI has created a new mold to be used over and over in the future as the <br />people of Colorado meet the challenge of conserving wetlands head on. <br /> <br />14 <br />