WSP00616 - Laserfiche WebLink

Home Browse Search

News analysi.s Johnson had wanted the hearings held here because it wasooe way he might be able to secure passage of bis version of the two bills. '. With Haskell being chairman of Ibis own committee as well as a IDemocrat. and with congressman :Jobn Melcher of Montana. the -chalrman of the house subcommit- tee on which Johnson serves, John. .son needed to demonstrate what ;I()(al feeling on the question was. I If for example, he could get the -county commissioners in both Gar- :field and Rio Blanco counties to .favor his bill which he did, that 'might be persuasive with Melcher, something essential to the passage of the Johnson bill. Johnson himseU has been under ",pressure from the Colorado delega- .tiOD, the members of which are _either democratic or from the (highly populous Denver metropoli- .tan area, or both, to give up his _stand. I But Johnson bas won a consti- .tuency in Western Colorado be- lcause hU two bills are specifically written as devices not only to create ,wilderness areas but also as devices ,to retain water In the basins where ,it originates. i Haskell has obtained the support ~of environmentalists because of his party affiliation and record, but his bilts would not protect water sources, a fact hardly mentioned in abe Gleowood hearings. : What was stated In the Glenwood hearings was that Gov. Richard iLamm supported the Haskell Eagles Nest Bill which would allow some 96 per cent of the absolute and conditional water rights owned by ; the Denver Water Board to be u~. ,whereas none of tbe rigbts could be ,used under the Johnson bill. : The only way in which the water could be taken out of a wilderness area under the Johnson bills would be through presidential decree, .something not expected to happen. : That means in essence that both Haskell and Lamm placed them- selves in the position of appearing to champion environmental causes :white at the same time protecting a consituency in Denver by not ob- structing the flow of water to that Political , By NICK PABST SeatlDel Staff Writer GLENWOOD SPRINGS - There were many symbols at the hearings held in Glenwood Springs last week to consider crreation of the Ea&J.e. Nest and Flat Tops Wildernus art!as. The main performers for exam. pIe sat in front of an auditorium at times less than ball filled with spec- tators. And instead of sitting on the stage Itself. the performers sat below it, leaving the large red cur. tain down to obscure the stage as though tbe main performance would be played out on some other slage. The atmosphere of the hearings was casual to begin with and made even more so by the sounds of the Glenwood High School band prac- ticing in a nearby room and the sud- den clatter of chair seats folding up each time the bell rang to signal the beginning of a new class. The stu. dents who had sat inOD the hearings to glean some Insight Into the American political process left snickering self consciously and were replaced by a new class with each bell, causing the witnesses to raise their voices and smile toler- antly. The question that had to be asked by even the most astute student of government after the hearings had been concluded was Dot only wbat had been accomplished but also what had gone on beneath the sur- face and would oot be included in the transcripts of the hearings. Something that was a part of the record was the fact that tbe hear- ings were being conducted under the aegis of the Senate Interior SuI).. committee on Environment and Land Resources with Sen. Floyd Haskell in charge. Not necessarily in the record was the fact that a Republican, Rep. James Johnson, had also authored two wilderness bills that conflicted with those authored by Democrat 'HaskplI -...II....~-I- ().9~1 , ,