Foes of Wolf Creek project gain records
A judge has ordered the U.S. Forest Service to surrender records on a development planned at a rustic Colorado ski resort to opponents – just weeks before the agency is expected to make a final recommendation on the project.
The Forest Service released thousands of documents last fall after a lawsuit was filed by Colorado Wild, a Durango-based environmental group. A federal magistrate ruled Tuesday that the Forest Service must follow up by certifying that the search for documents is complete, describe how the search was done and provide an index of communications between the agency and the developers of the Village at Wolf Creek.
“Without that information, it’s really hard to know if they’re sending us everything or just sending us the stuff they’re comfortable with us seeing,” Ryan Bidwell of Colorado Wild said Thursday.
Environmental groups, area residents and operators of the Wolf Creek Ski Area in southwestern Colorado are battling to block construction of the resort at the base of the ski slopes. They contend that the development by Texas billionaire “Red” McCombs will destroy wetlands and harm water quality and lynx the state has released in the area.
Opponents also claim that McCombs, co-founder of media giant Clear Channel Communications, has tried to influence public officials deciding on construction of an access road across national forest land. Colorado Wild says records released last year by the Forest Service show that the developer’s lawyers were ghostwriting federal policies on the project.
Bob Honts, a representative for McCombs, has said the correspondence simply shows the developer’s attorneys and federal officials conferring on the temporary use of a Forest Service road.
Regent Schwartz to seek state Senate seat
University of Colorado Regent Gail Schwartz is running for the state Senate in the 5th District.
The Democrat’s six-year term on the CU Board of Regents expires in January 2007 and she will not seek re-election, she said Thursday.
Schwartz, 56, of Snowmass Village, was on the Colorado Commission on Higher Education from 1995 to 1998. As a senator, she said she would remain an advocate for higher education and fight to protect the district’s water rights.
Attorney general targets use of peyote
A proposal before the Utah Legislature would limit the use of peyote to federally recognized Indian tribes during traditional religious ceremonies.
Peyote is illegal for general use, but federal law allows limited use in American Indian religious ceremonies. The Utah bill is intended to prevent people from escaping prosecution by claiming Indian heritage and religious use of peyote without being able to prove it.
The bill follows state and federal court cases against James and Linda Mooney, founders of the Oklevueha EarthWalks Native American Church of Utah. In 2000, the couple were charged with drug distribution for providing peyote to members of and visitors to their church.
A state court conviction of the couple was struck down by the Utah Supreme Court, which said Utah law failed to recognize portions of federal law that restrict peyote use to members of federally recognized tribes.
“I saw that as an invitation to fix it,” Attorney General Mark Shurtleff said Wednesday.
Wyoming hopes newest bighorn will thrive
Wyoming wildlife officers on Thursday released 20 bighorn sheep from Montana in Devil’s Canyon in the Bighorn Mountains.
“The purpose of this is to basically put sheep back on the mountain,” said Dennie Hammer, spokesman for the Wyoming Game and Fish Department in Cody.
True to its name, the Bighorn Mountains used to have a lot of sheep. But they haven’t done well in recent years.
The department has previously brought in sheep from Oregon and elsewhere in Wyoming to try to increase the herd. But those sheep haven’t thrived in the Bighorns, either.
The department hopes that the Montana sheep will thrive and stay put. Hammer said they haven’t proven to be particularly migratory in Montana.
Fingerprints sought for N.M. driver’s licenses
The administration of Gov. Bill Richardson is proposing that immigrants who apply for a New Mexico driver’s license be fingerprinted for background checks.
The move would strengthen border security and ensure that applicants for licenses “are who they say they are,” Taxation and Revenue Secretary Jan Goodwin said Wednesday.
New Mexico is one of 11 states that don’t require driver’s license applicants to prove they are legal residents of the United States. The state lets foreign nationals present a passport, a federal tax identification number or a consular identification card to apply for a license.
The head of Somos Un Pueblo Unido, a Santa Fe immigrant-advocacy group, said requiring fingerprints would turn immigrants away from getting a license and would undermine public-safety goals.
“If people know their fingerprints are going to a federal agency that shares information with the Department of Homeland Security, which enforces immigration laws, the vast majority are not going to apply,” Marcela Diaz said.
