As the New Year begins, a new governor and legislature will confront the difficult work of balancing Colorado’s budget while keeping the state as one of the most attractive places in the country to work and live. The challenges facing this effort may seem overwhelming, but our leaders have an opportunity to build upon a great tradition of collaboration and common sense solutions that typify how Coloradans have approached natural resource challenges in the past. Looking back on 2010, we can find several examples of such progress on some of Colorado’s most pressing, and sometimes contentious, issues — land conservation, energy and forest health.
The U.S. Census recently ranked Colorado as the ninth-fastest-growing state in the nation over the past decade. Despite that growth, we have managed to retain a wealth of open space on our working private lands in Colorado. Much of the credit for that success goes to Great Outdoors Colorado (GOCO), established in 1992 by the people of Colorado to preserve, protect, enhance and manage the state’s wildlife, park, river, trail and open space heritage. GOCO fosters a spirit of collaboration between private landowners, land trusts, and local and state governments that yields great results for land conservation.
To date, nearly 2 million acres have been protected in Colorado through voluntary conservation easements to the benefit of wildlife, recreationists, ranchers and our economy. Each of these acres represents relationship-building between many different parties. For example, protection of the more than 20,000-acre Jumping Cow ranch in rapidly growing Elbert County resulted from a partnership between the landowner, The Nature Conservancy, the Division of Wildlife and GOCO.
Colorado’s Renewable Energy Standard — which requires 30 percent of the state’s electricity to be generated from renewable sources by 2020 — will bring jobs and economic benefits to Colorado. As the state’s wind energy potential is developed, it will also alter the native prairie of the Eastern Plains. These potential impacts are being carefully considered by the Colorado Renewables and Conservation Collaborative (CRCC), a coalition of wind energy interests and conservation groups.
Working in concert with the Colorado Public Utilities Commission, Xcel Energy and the Colorado Division of Wildlife, CRCC created a voluntary best management practice (BMP) framework to avoid, minimize and mitigate the effects of wind energy development on eastern Colorado’s native plants and wildlife. Engaging both business and conservation interests ensured that the BMPs are business viable and conservation credible.
The challenge of restoring Colorado’s forests to a healthy condition that sustains natural values and reduces the threat of wildfire to homes and infrastructure is one that demands effective collaboration between many parties. This summer’s Fourmile Canyon fire near Boulder was a stark reminder of the risks posed by unhealthy forest conditions. Fortunately, Colorado is a national model for partnership approaches to long-term forest restoration.
In 2010, the U.S. Forest Service awarded special grants to 10 forest areas around the country where joint efforts show the greatest promise for improving forest conditions at a large scale. Colorado was the only state to receive two of these grants, one benefiting the Uncompahgre Plateau in western Colorado and one covering Front Range forests stretching from El Paso to Larimer counties.
The Front Range restoration effort is an initiative of the Front Range Roundtable, a coalition of more than 50 diverse organizations working together to restore 1.5 million acres of forest that are in urgent need of management to protect nearby communities and restore ecological health. Because the threats to our state’s forests stretch across county lines and other political barriers, collaboration is proving to be paramount in addressing their problems. Policy roundtables, cooperative grants, and shared learning networks that are connecting scientists and forest managers have catalyzed a substantial effort to ensure costly catastrophic fires are less prevalent.
There will always be a wide range of viewpoints about how to address challenges to our natural landscapes and advance conservation in our state. The successes of 2010 built upon our state’s history of finding collaborative and practical solutions. I am optimistic that we will see much of the same in 2011. This is good news for Colorado.
Tim Sullivan is Colorado state director for The Nature Conservancy.
