Posted 2 months, 14 days ago in 
Loading ...
I’ve been hunting and fishing in Colorado’s backcountry for a good part of my life. It’s one of the best things about living here and a joy I share with friends and relatives. Hunting and fishing also bring in millions of dollars every year from license sales, and big benefits to local businesses, from outfitters to steakhouses.
Yet the politicos in Washington, D.C. don’t get it. The BLM rudely rejected Gov. Bill Ritter’s phased development plan — a modest proposal filled with compromise — for drilling the Roan Plateau, which at least would have somewhat offset negative impacts on native cutthroat trout and wildlife.
Now Washington is ramming through a last-minute rulemaking to allow more development in Colorado’s backcountry, including prime wildlife habitat. This radical move would strip our national forests of protections the rest of American enjoys under the 2001 Roadless Rule, which sportsmen and women support.
Sportsmen are fed up with the pell-mell rush to drill and punch roads into our backcountry while neglecting habitat. We’re not opposed to development, but it needs to be done sensibly, not the bull-in-a-china-shop approach the Bush Administration encourages.
Where’s the rush? We’d view Gov. Ritter as a hero if he called “time out” and waited for a new team in the White House that will defend Colorado’s backcountry, rather than do all it can to gut it.
DAVID LIEN, Cochairman
Backcountry Hunters and Anglers
Colorado Springs
2 Responses to “We need a ‘time out’ on development”
Posted July 24th, 2008 at 7:28 pm Login to Send PM Report this comment
I too am a sportsman. I have hunted and fished this state all my life. And I too want to protect our wildlife habitat. And I too want a realistic approach that will protect our economy as well. I would simply point out that guides and outfitters have a pretty sweet deal in CO, with less than half of the limited draw big game licenses going to resident hunters. I think by the end of the 2008 hunting season, there will be a realization that a great deal of the loss of sportsman revenue to small communities will be a result of the high pump prices for gasoline. Many of the areas in Colorado who depend on tourism and hunting revenues will be faced with the realization that without lower gasoline prices, which by necessity depend on increased supply, which in turn depend on our willingness to allow safe drilling, there will be not tourism or out of state hunters. The letter writer asks what is the rush? The rush is the money leaving our wallets every time we fill up, and that economic reality has become the driving force behind this issue. I think we all have to give a little to get a little. And I believe most sportsmen, like the general public, are beginning to realize that reality.
Posted July 25th, 2008 at 7:39 am Login to Send PM Report this comment
“The BLM rudely rejected Gov. Bill Ritter’s phased development plan” What Mr. Lien does not say is that the BLM’s current development plan was approved by the state prior to the change in state administration. Why should a state have the right to flip-flop for development on Federal ground?
Feds have to go through a lengthy process before doing any development, and the public has the right to be involved. What people don’t much care for is the multiple use portions of public lands.
It would not bother me if ATVs were banned from public lands, they do about as much damage as anything else. Any time there are any restrictions placed on their use you can hear a loud wail from “sportsmen” who put down their breakfast Buds long enough to complain. Where is Mr. Lien’s concern about that issue?
Leave a Reply
You must be logged in to post a comment.