DENVER-
Harris Sherman, the state’s new natural resources chief, has the same seventh-floor office overlooking the state Capitol that he did in his first stint in the job about 30 years ago. He even has the same phone number
Many of the issues are the same—water, wildlife, access to public lands, energy development, a potential oil shale boom. But Sherman, who left a law practice to return as head of the Department of Natural Resources, said the scale is much bigger.
“There’s just a kind of unprecedented competition for the state’s natural resources, which is more than the last time I held this position,” Sherman said in an interview with The Associated Press Thursday.
The fast-growing population along the Front Range and parts of western Colorado, record natural gas drilling rates and the wild card of climate change and its potential impacts on water have put the state at a crossroads.
Sherman, who first headed the department in Dick Lamm’s administration from 1975 to 1980, finds himself in the thick of several complex and contentious issues: roadless areas in national forests, managing Colorado’s scarce water, restructuring the commission that regulates oil and gas drilling, competition for the gas- and wildlife-rich Roan Plateau in Western Colorado and more.
Sherman will recommend whether to change a plan sent by former Gov. Bill Owens to federal officials for managing 4.1 million acres of roadless national forest land in Colorado.
During his confirmation hearings in the state Senate, Sherman said he told legislators it would take up to 90 days to review the plan and make recommendations to Gov. Bill Ritter.
“We’re trying to accelerate that time period,” said Sherman, who’s been in the position for a month.
Some members of a state task force want Ritter to endorse the plan signed by Owens. It asks the U.S. Forest Service to protect most of the land, which was declared off-limits to development by the Clinton administration.
Others want Ritter to modify the plan or withdraw it since a federal court in San Francisco has reinstated the Clinton-era ban on new roads on 58.5 million acres of forest land nationwide.
But the state of Wyoming is reviving its lawsuit against the ban. In the state’s first lawsuit, U.S. District Judge Clarence Brimmer in Cheyenne sided with the state in 2003 and overturned the Clinton rule. The Bush administration decided not to appeal the decision, instead issuing a new rule requiring states to petition to bar development.
Sherman said the “chaotic and confusing” legal situation means Colorado might have to rely on individual forest management plans to protect the roadless areas if the Clinton rule is overturned again and the state has no plan.
He said he is trying to clarify the federal process for considering the roadless petitions. If approved by Agriculture Secretary Mike Johanns, Colorado’s plan would have to go through hearings and environmental review. Sherman and Ritter want the forest land left alone while that’s happening.
Sherman is meeting with oil and gas industry representatives, city and county officials and hunting and environmental groups on a proposal to broaden the makeup and mission of the Colorado Oil and Gas Conservation Commission to include more non-industry members and focus more on health and environmental impacts.
“I think some changes are warranted because there is a perception, and I use the word carefully, ‘perception,’ that the industry is regulating itself,” Sherman said. “We need to demonstrate that we will approach the issues comprehensively, thoughtfully and in a balanced way.”
He envisions staffers and interest groups hashing out the details in rules implementing the legislation if it passes.
Another priority is water and the conflicts as the growing Front Range continues to eye the less populated West Slope’s water supplies and agriculture and cities scramble for declining supplies. Ritter created a stir in January when he questioned the effectiveness of a system using panels from the state’s water basins to coordinate projects.
Ritter said the process, adopted in 2005, has gotten mixed reviews, with critics complaining that participants are going around the system to cut their own deals.
Sherman said the administration is assessing the process to see how it can be improved. He said the roundtables, designed to develop guidelines for a statewide Interbasin Compact committee, hold promise for bringing new people into the process.
There’s the ongoing dispute over whether gas drilling should be allowed on top of western Colorado’s Roan Plateau, which has vast deposits of natural gas and oil shale and is also a hunting and wildlife mecca. The Bureau of Land Management has proposed allowing some wells on federal land on top of the plateau, but hunting and environmental groups and some elected officials are calling for federal legislation to delay development.
Sherman said another priority is the latest effort to unlock the oil in shale in western Colorado. He was department director during the last big push to mine the rock, which ended in 1982 when government subsidies dried up and oil prices dropped. He said he negotiated with former President Carter to defend Colorado’s interests in the face of attempts to speed up oil-shale development.
“In this first 30 days, I have been drinking from a fire hydrant,” Sherman said of his return to the state’s top natural resources job.
But even the 14-hour-plus work days aren’t dampening his enthusiasm, he said.
“The opportunity of returning to the state with a new governor, who I have great respect for and at a time when Colorado is at a crossroads with many challenges, just seemed like a great time to give back to the state,” Sherman said.
