Twenty years ago, Colorado wildlife officials restored long-missing lynx to the state’s forests and mountains. It was a joy to watch lynx bound away from their release point at Rio Grande Reservoir and take to their native habitat. Changing societal…
Photo: National Park Service In our original blog, ‘Why Restore Wolves to Colorado,’ we briefly discussed the top five reasons wolves should be reintroduced to the state. Now, we’re digging deeper into each of those arguments. You can also check…
Background Bighorn sheep are an iconic species of the American West. They call some of our country’s most rugged and remote landscapes home. Their cultural, ecological, aesthetic and economic value has made bighorn sheep a vital part of North American…
We know that meaningful and permanent public lands protections take time. Lots of time. Lots of stakeholders are at the table and compromises are hashed out over years, not weeks. Often times such efforts are framed by politicians as being…
Photo: Wikimedia Commons In our original blog, ‘Why Restore Wolves to Colorado,’ we briefly discussed the top five reasons wolves should be reintroduced to the state. Now, we’re digging deeper into each of those arguments. You can also check out Part…
The summer brought a whirlwind of change to America’s bedrock environmental laws, or at least the rules that implement those laws. The Trump administration has made no secret of its disdain for environmental rules that might impede the interests of…
In our previous blog, ‘Why Restore Wolves to Colorado,’ we briefly discussed the top five reasons wolves should be reintroduced to the state. In this and future blogs, we’re digging deeper into each of those arguments. Blogs by Gary Skiba,…
As Colorado fills up with people and our forests evolve in response to a changing climate, what happens to our renowned wildlife? Can we make space for migrating game herds and dispersing species? With more traffic, U.S. Highway 160 and…
Conservation advocates routinely harp on the single-minded focus of the Trump administration exhorting resource exploitation on our public lands. In case that just sounds like hyperbole, recent real-life examples help illustrate the reality of the Department of Interior’s energy dominance…
Photo: Fish and Wildlife Service Wolves have long stirred strong emotions in this country and still do. The idea of bringing wolves back to Colorado generates passionate support as well as die-hard opposition. Yet from an ecological standpoint, wolves belong…
Clean off those ‘No Pillage’ bumperstickers*, because here we go again. If you’ve lived in the area for long, you know the Village has a decades-long history. The short story is that a billionaire from Texas has long wanted to…
Photo: Alex Pullen OK, here we go again. Many of you joined us in submitting protests this last fall on the draft decision to provide road access to the Village. And for good reason. It’s not surprising they went ahead and…
Photo: Jason Hatfield Fans of Utah’s spectacular redrock country can savor congressional action this week that advanced protections for a million acres of the incomparable San Rafael Swell, and one of the Colorado Plateau’s longest wild river segments through Desolation…
Photo: Alex Pullen, Future home of would-be Village at Wolf Creek Good News! You probably aren’t new to this decades-long controversy over the proposed Village at Wolf Creek development. And even so, it can be hard to follow all the…
Photo: Wikipedia Commons We’ve been advocating for wildlife, quiet use and watershed protections within the Rico West Dolores Travel Management Plan for a decade. Many of you have joined us in demanding that the region be managed for the those…
Recently, Senator Gardner told a group gathering in Norwood, Colorado that he wouldn’t stand in the way of the San Juan Mountains Wilderness Act moving forward. We’re looking to him now to make to good on his commitment to move…
Are we doomed to the zombie Village at Wolf Creek endlessly stalking the San Juan Mountains? No matter how many times apparently dead, it seemingly staggers back to life, lurching with a blank gaze and lifeless arms in its 30-year-long…
Photo: Wikipedia Commons By the time Scott Pruitt resigned as the Environmental Protection Agency’s administrator, he was the poster child for bungling personal entitlement. As Republican Sen. Joni Ernst of Iowa put it, Pruitt was the swampiest of the Washington,…
Photo: Alex Pullen Wow, we weren’t really expecting this. We’ve been fighting the proposed Village at Wolf Creek for well over a decade now. As you likely know, in order to develop the 8,000-person city atop Wolf Creek Pass, the developers…
“Wilderness is not a luxury, but a necessity of the human spirit.” Edward Abbey It seems so obvious that we should preserve at least some small part of this planet to remain relatively untouched by humans and our destructive…
We’re taking the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) to court over their March 2017 lease sale. In order to explain why the Tres Rios Field Office (TRFO) March 2017 lease sale is worthy of a lawsuit, we need to take a step…
By: Chris Talbot-Heindl, Communications & Membership Manager, Rocky Mountain Wild Canada Lynx and Ski Resorts In late December, we all watched in awe as a Canada lynx lumbered across Purgatory Resort amid astonished skiers in broad daylight. For some, it was…
It’s 3 weeks into January and here at the Alliance we’re finally taking a moment to clear the papers off our desks, breathe, and reflect on the past year. We started 2015 knowing there were thousands of people in the region…
This is a great short video by our friends at Backcountry Hunters and Anglers on the standoff at the Malheur Wildlife Refuge in Oregon. It’s an important sanctuary, particularly for birds, and belongs to each of us.
Photo Credit: EcoFlight This is a huge moment. Today we joined together with Diné CARE and other regional and national conservation groups to seek justice for the communities and species threatened by the the Four Corners Power Plant and Navajo…
This holiday season I’d like to propose a corollary to Durango’s well-loved buy local movement: give local. December is a month awash in fundraising requests, and let’s face it: being on the receiving end can get tiresome. But let’s face…
We have some excellent news. The fight for Wolf Creek Pass continues, but today we took a great step forward. The Forest Service has not been transparent with the public about the “Village at Wolf Creek” project. Today we are thrilled to…
The Alliance and our partners have been working for years to secure these instream protections for the Dolores vital to the native fish and overall health of the river. This is a big win! We were disappointed that our local Southwest…
Photo Credit: Kathy Myrick If you are like me, you were probably hoping that by now – 6 days into the Gold King Mine release – the EPA would be giving our beloved river the “all clear.” Unfortunately, that is…
Photo Credit: Kathy Myrick The recent disaster on the Animas has earned national media attention. If you are following this or interested in the various perspectives or evolution the coverage has taken, below is a listing of the coverage we have tracked…
Well… that was lively. Here are a few SJCA takeaways from tonight’s EPA/Community meeting: 1. Our communities want good data on what is in the water, and the EPA has been slow in producing that data. Sure, it takes time…
This is a sample of Animas River water taken by Mountain Studies Institute late last night in Durango. Not good folks. A lot of people have been contacting SJCA to ask what they can do. Here’s a pass at our…
We’ve been getting a lot of compliments on our new and improved newsletter. The format is a little (OK, a lot) different than the last time we put one together (some two years ago…) and you’ll be proud to leave it on…
As many of you know, last month we filed a lawsuit challenging the legality of the Forest Service’s decision to approve a land swap that facilitates the long-threatened Pillage at Wolf Creek. Although the land will likely be exchanged later this week, we’ve signed…
Last Friday night I camped on our national forest lands to the east and just below Wolf Creek Pass. Before snuggling into my sleeping bag, I bid a goodnight to the couple dozen elk grazing amongst the ponds and wetland…
We’ve been telling you that the process the Forest Service used to approve the land exchange, which paves the way for the Pillage at Wolf Creek, was highly flawed and illegal. After sifting through tens of thousands of documents released through…
Thank you to Danny Ledonne at Emberwilde Productions for this great video!
It’s time. Time to take action on Wolf Creek. (not that we haven’t been taking it all along… but you know what I mean.) Next week we are sending a delegation to Washington, D.C. to meet with our elected officials…
For months people have been asking: “What can I do to help save Wolf Creek Pass?” Well, here’s a very immediate and concrete request. Next week, representatives from a number of community groups will be visiting officials in Washington, D.C.,…
Is the fight for the future of Wolf Creek over? Has the community effort to protect this wild, unique and beloved landscape been in vain? After all, the U.S. Forest Service did just sign a Record of Decision (bureaucracy-speak for…
By law Environmental Impact Statements are intended to be robust and transparent. Very little in the nearly 30-year saga of the proposed Village at Wolf Creek Pass has met those expectations. Sadly, 2015 has been no different. Today the Forest Service amended and…
I want you to envision a day with me; it’s the day that bulldozers begin ripping apart Wolf Creek Pass to build Texas billionaire Red McCombs’ version of Vail South. Last week, that possible dark day moved closer to reality, leaving…
The threat to Pillage Wolf Creek Pass with a jumbo development that simply doesn’t belong in a stunning, remote, high altitude environment has been relentless over the last couple decades. Unfortunately, the most recent decision to approve the land swap with billionaire…
Ever heard that little ditty: Sticks and stones may break my bones, but names will never hurt me. Turns out to be a complete and utter lie. Heck, you don’t even need full names – acronyms will do – and…
The day before the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) Tres Rios Field Office (TRFO) released its Resource Management Plan (RMP), the Alliance drafted a list of 10 things to watch for in the final document. I’d like to think that…
If you’ve been following the multi-year saga of the Bureau of Land Management’s (BLM) Tres Rios Field Office (TRFO) Resource Management Plan (RMP), then you know a lot is at stake. As we highlighted in a previous post, this planning…
The Bureau of Land Management (BLM) Tres Rios Field Office (TRFO) manages over 503,000 acres of public lands in southwest Colorado. Their management includes oversight of federal minerals exploration and development on more than 804,000 acres of private, state, and…
Ever wonder what the Alliance has been up to? Or how we put your donations to work? If so, this blog is for you. As we head into 2015, we thought we’d take a moment to recap some of our…
Today’s decision by Rio Grande National Forest Supervisor Dan Dallas to approve a land exchange on top of Wolf Creek Pass requested by billionaire Red McCombs is both a disappointing and absurd decision to “green light” a development that would…
Who cares about lynx? I ask this question for two reasons. One: The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, by law, is supposed to care about lynx, but doesn’t. Two: Members of the San Juan Citizens Alliance care about lynx, and…
