GLENWOOD SPRINGS \u2013 Outdoor business leaders and conservationists are joining forces to urge Colorado to prioritize river-based recreation in the state\u2019s upcoming water plan.<\/p>\n
As the Colorado Water Conservation Board met this weekend to discuss the first statewide water plan, the conservation and business coalition was pressing the state to rely on data collected around the Colorado River Basin to ensure enough water remains in rivers to sustain the region\u2019s $12 billion recreation economy.<\/p>\n
Nathan Fey, director of Colorado River stewardship programs at American Whitewater, said he thinks the draft plan fails to make some crucial connections.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re not seeing the state water plan make that effort and really invest in improving our understanding of river health and recreational health,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Fey said he finds that missing connection odd because the science on which his coalition bases its concerns isn\u2019t anything new.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere are nearly four decades of science that have been developed around how to define stream flows for recreation,\u201d he said, \u201cand to understand the relationship between flow and recreation quality.\u201d<\/p>\n
The state\u2019s draft water plan currently includes major trans-mountain diversions and a movement of water across the Rocky Mountains for the state\u2019s thirsty Front Range cities such as Denver and Boulder.<\/p>\n
Fey predicted that moving water on a speculative basis would jeopardize the health of many of the state\u2019s most beloved rivers without considering greater conservation measures as an option.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe think that the water plan should prioritize conservation and other concepts like reuse and water sharing,\u201d he said. \u201cThat is much more palatable than these new, large-scale projects that are divisive and really destroy our river systems.\u201d<\/p>\n
The same need to prioritize river health, Fey said, will be on the agenda for the regionwide Colorado River Basin Study, a major federal document that will impact western rivers for decades to come.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat really needs to happen next, because it\u2019s not just Colorado,\u201d he said, \u201cis our neighboring states in the basin make a concerted effort to identify how much water we need to keep in our rivers to sustain a recreation economy.\u201d<\/p>\n
Fey said outdoor recreation access and quality, along with overall environmental health, are among the top concerns of Colorado residents \u2013 and one of the key advantages for Front Range-area businesses in attracting new employees.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Coalition favors conservation efforts<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[5742,5735],"tags":[13,3622,1569,1518],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-117846","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-business","category-news","tag-frontpage-lead","tag-river-sports","tag-river-use","tag-rivers"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/117846","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=117846"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/117846\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=117846"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=117846"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=117846"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=117846"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}