PERMFILE137665 - Laserfiche WebLink

Home Browse Search

Mark A. Heffner, Ecologist • 37 East Colorado Avenue Denver, CO 80210-3105 1'303) 722-9067 {Voice and Fax) eca[ion ecology and reclama[lon planning Visual impact analysis Documentary photography May 25, 1999 RECEIVED James E. Lockhart MAY 2 6 1999 1718 Lorraine St. Apt. B4 Colorado Springs, C080906 Division of Minetab&Ge010gy RE: Your comments and objections to the Table Mountain Quarry application. Dear Mr. Lockhart: On behalf of my client, Castle Concrete Company, I wish to provide you with a response to your letter of March 22, 1999, to the Colorado Division of Minerals and Geology. As it appears that this matter will be going to heazing in June, I wish to provide you with some information that may be helpful to your understanding of some of the matters of concern to you and your local Sierra Club group. I will discuss each of the primary issues you present in your letter. Public Recreational Use: This is the issue that seems to be of most concern. I have enclosed a cop}' of a letter sent to Marshall Butler of the Fremont County Department of Planning and Zoning from Mark Davis of the Colorado State Board of Land Commissioners. In this letter it is clearly pointed out chat any party entering Table Mountain land managed by that agency without a purpose specifically delineated in one of the many leases constitutes a trespass. Although in the past the area has been open to hunting under the Division of Wildlife lease, using the land for purposes other than hunting is inappropriate. There has been little control over unauthorized uses in the past, but that does not change the situation that unauthorized uses still constitute a trespass, in the opinion of the land management agency. It is a common misconception that state land is public land similar to, for example, U.S. Forest Service land. State land, although public land in the sense that it is owned by the state, is not public land Eree for all to use, within reason. It is basically in the same classification as private property and is managed as such. The state ]and was given to the western states by the Federal Government primaril}' for the purpose of generating income for the state and most specifically for schools. Thus, it is ohen called "school land." The issue regazding public use of this land cannot be addressed by the Mined Land Reclamation Board as they are not the managing agency. Whether or not there is a quarry on the top of Table Mountain will not alter the faa chat, in the opinion of the managing agency, entry for purposes other than those provided for in the leases is a trespass. You should be aware chat the Division of Wildlife has canceled their portion of the lease that borders Highway l ls. In the future access will be provided for hunting from the Beaver CreeWBanta Gulch area co the north of Table Mountain. This will allow the Division greater control over the use of land under their lease and eliminates much of the problem with unauthorized uses from the Highway 115 corridor.