Every year at The Nature Conservancy we create a Green List, celebrating the projects, people and accomplishments advancing conservation across our state.
So here, in no particular order, is our Green List.
• Gov. Bill Ritter signing into law Senate Bill 98, allowing local communities to fund open space acquisition. SB 98, sponsored by Sen. Joan Fitz-Gerald and Rep. Al White, gives county governments the financial means to fund local conservation programs through voter-approved sales tax increases and allows counties to ask voters to approve half-cent sales- and use-tax increases to fund the acquisition of land for open space and parks.
• Great Outdoors Colorado awarding $57 million in Legacy grants to 15 projects that will help preserve 138,000 acres across the state. These projects expand urban recreational opportunities, provide critical wildlife habitat, protect scenic viewsheds and prevent communities from growing together. They will result in the construction of 40 miles of new trails.
• Gov. Ritter for appointing two exceptional professionals to key positions in state government for the conservation of natural resources. Thomas Remington is the new director of the Colorado Division of Wildlife, and Dean Winstanley is the director of state parks.
• The reopening and enlargement of Elkhead Reservoir. The enlarged reservoir will provide additional water annually to augment flows for federally endangered fish in the Yampa River during the middle and late summer, a time when low flows can reduce habitat and make these fish vulnerable to non-native predators. The project, undertaken by the Upper Colorado River Endangered Fish Recovery Program, counts The Nature Conservancy and Western Resource Advocates, state and federal agencies, and water and power users among its partners. Together they have spearheaded a range of conservation actions throughout the Upper Colorado basin, demonstrating that conservation challenges can be solved if the right people get together with the best information.
• The Colorado General Assembly, for authorizing $1 million in funding for a new Community Forest Restoration Grant Program. It gives diverse, locally based partners new motivation to work together in identifying and addressing their mutual forest health and watershed concerns and builds important connections between the state’s forestry and water agencies.
• The legislature also passed House Bill 1298 to increase protection for wildlife in oil and gas development areas, making protecting wildlife resources part of the Oil and Gas Conservation Commission’s mission and ensuring that the Division of Wildlife plays a more prominent role in protecting wildlife in the face of oil and gas development.
• The Rocky Mountain Climate Organization’s report on climate change, documenting that climate disruption is already underway in the West. The report was prepared in order to spread the word about what climate disruption can do to us here and what we can do about it.
• Gov. Ritter’s release of a climate change strategy. He demonstrated strong leadership and vision in presenting Colorado with its first Climate Action Plan, an ambitious call to action that establishes firm goals and clear strategies to reduce harmful greenhouse gas emissions.
In the coming year, the Conservancy and the conservation community vow to make the conservation easement program as strong as possible.
The greatest gift one can give is the gift of conservation. These people, organizations and projects are gifts in and of themselves and give us and future generations reasons to celebrate.
Charles E. Bedford is Colorado director of The Nature Conservancy (nature.org).
