Shared comment:DEIS #35945 - Page 2-46/47 - Employment Status

Well folks we are in the last week of the Village at Wolf Creek land swap DEIS  comment period.  Earlier in the month I made at least three comments through the DEIS comments page at 
https://cara.ecosystem-management.org/Public/CommentInput?Project=35945

And I sent them a hard copy covering eight DEIS items.  They have sent no acknowledgment that they received my letter and quite honestly I don't know if it's policy or not to acknowledge receipt of comments - or if we just have to wait until their final report to see what's in and what may have been overlooked.

Given that I've put this much effort into putting together this critique, I figured I should take out some insurance as I make a last round of comments through their comments page.

So I'll be posting my comments here and take a 'screen shot' of the comment page confirmation that pops up after hitting the send button for my own record.

And those of you out there who care - this is it, the final few days to make your considered opinion known to the powers-that-be.

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Page 2-46/47 - Employment Status

It’s interesting when it comes to Climate Change driving the Bark Beetle forest kill and Climate Change already creating drought conditions with numerous government sponsored studies warning us to prepare for worse... you EIS author’s write an out and out falsehood such as: 

VWC-DEIS - Page 4-56   Chapter 4. “{...}Conversely, while climate change has been projected to have incremental impacts on various aspects of human activities at some unknown point in the future, there are no methodologies available at this point to predict any impacts on the project being analyzed here.”

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But when you want to paint a rosy developer friendly impression, it’s done with confidence going out to the 2040s.  

VWC-DEIS, Page 2-46/47  -  Employment StatusPage 2-46/47 -  Chapter 2. Description of Alternatives Draft Environmental Impact Statement - Village at Wolf Creek Access Project 
“Alternative 3 Maximum Density Development Concept  
Employment Status.  As with the Alternative 2 Maximum Density Development Concept, the longer term impact of this development concept would likely be a reduction in the ongoing unemployment rate, although this would depend on other cycles in the regional/national economy.  During the 30- year phase in period, the Maximum Density Development Concept of Alternative 3 would generate a cumulative total of over 9,723 construction FTEs, or an average of 324 construction related FTEs in each year.  Upon completion in year 2044, ongoing Village operations would generate a total of 2,271 annual FTEs – these FTEs would continue into the future for as long as the Village maintains operations.”

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It’s my examination of such glaring “oversights” that have turned this whole VWC-DEIS drama into such a fascinating, though brutally depressing, exercise in watching willful self-deception in action for me.  

How can you EIS authors seriously claim that our physical environment in 2030s and 40s will resemble the world we loved these past decades of our lives - how can you presume to project employment figures based on past experience?  While remaining blind to the fundamental eco-system disrupts we are witness?

Drive over Wolf Creek Pass for a taste of future shock. . .
And it’s not local!  Different, but similar, disruptions to age old eco-systems are occurring all over this nation and the planet. Why pretend these cascading consequences aren't going to seriously impact all aspects of the Village at Wolf Creek’s viability?  Or the importance of an unmolested Alberta Park watershed?

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Why no look at the cost of a failed project?  
Why doesn't the Environmental Impact examine that potential?   The Rio Grande River needs Alberta Park to remain an unmolested key component of the Wolf Creek watershed more than ever.  Not a plowed up mess left by another developer with big pipedreams, but cash bust and gone home just the same.

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How will facilitating the destruction of an integral part of a precious wetlands, you know source waters for the Rio Grande River Basin, help our kids who depend on a healthy Rio Grande River as much as we depend on jobs?  

Why not entertain how to get Mr. McCombs to consider returning that parcel back to RGNF or into a nature conservancy?

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Here’s a tiny sampler of real scientific information that you authors chose to ignore in your DEIS, will you repeat the “oversight” in your FEIS?

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On Climate Change in the Southwestern U.S.

"Climate change is already affecting fish, wildlife, plants and their habitats around the globe. The Service's Southwest Region has been working with the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS)

http://www.fws.gov/southwest/Climatechange/index.html

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Global Change Reports and Assessments

"According to the Analysis of Global Change Assessments by the National Research Council:

“Water supplies will become increasingly scarce, calling for trade-offs among competing uses, and potentially leading to conflict.”"

http://www.globalchange.gov/publications/reports/scientific-assessments/us-impacts/regional-climate-change-impacts/southwest#issue1

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Climate Change in the Southwest Observed Climate Changes

University of Arizona

http://www.climas.arizona.edu/sw-climate/climate-change

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Climate Change over the Southwestern U.S. as predicted by Regional Climate Models

American Geophysical Union, Fall Meeting 2011, abstract #GC21A-0861

http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2011AGUFMGC21A0861G 

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Study predicts permanent drought in Southwest

The National Center for Atmospheric Research

http://www.ucar.edu/communications/staffnotes/0705/drought.shtml

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Climate Change and Bark Beetle epidemic

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BioScience 60(8):602-613. 2010
doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.1525/bio.2010.60.8.6

http://www.bioone.org/doi/abs/10.1525/bio.2010.60.8.6

Climate Change and Bark Beetles of the Western United States and Canada: Direct and Indirect Effects

Barbara J. Bentz, Jacques Régnière, Christopher J. Fettig, E. Matthew Hansen, Jane L. Hayes, Jeffrey A. Hicke, Rick G. Kelsey, Jose F. Negrón and Steven J. Seybold

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http://www.pnas.org/content/106/17/7063.short

Temperature sensitivity of drought-induced tree mortality portends increased regional die-off under global-change-type drought

1. Henry D. Adams^a,^b,¹, Maite Guardiola-Claramonte^a,^c, Greg A. Barron-Gafford^a,^b, Juan Camilo Villegas^a,^d,^e, David D. Breshears^a,^b,^d,^f, Chris B. Zou^g, Peter A. Troch^a,^c and Travis E. Huxman^a,^b,

1. Edited by Harold A. Mooney, Stanford University, Stanford, CA, and approved March 5, 2009

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http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0378112709003296

Stand characteristics and downed woody debris accumulations associated with a mountain pine beetle (Dendroctonus ponderosae Hopkins) outbreak in Colorado

1. Jennifer G. Klutsch^a, José F. Negrón^a, Sheryl L. Costello^b, Charles C. Rhoades^a, Daniel R. West^a, John Popp^a, Rick Caissie^c

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BioScience 58(6):501-517. 2008
doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.1641/B580607

http://www.bioone.org/doi/abs/10.1641/B580607

Cross-scale Drivers of Natural Disturbances Prone to Anthropogenic Amplification: The Dynamics of Bark Beetle Eruptions

Kenneth F. Raffa, Brian H. Aukema, Barbara J. Bentz, Allan L. Carroll, Jeffrey A. Hicke, Monica G. Turner, and William H. Romme

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http://www.bioone.org/doi/abs/10.1603/0046-225X(2008)37%5B281:CFAWHS%5D2.0.CO%3B2

Environmental Entomology 37(2):281-292. 2008
doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.1603/0046-225X(2008)37[281:CFAWHS]2.0.CO;2

Climate Factors Associated with Historic Spruce Beetle (Coleoptera: Curculionidae) Outbreaks in Utah and Colorado

Elizabeth G. Hebertson¹ and Michael J. Jenkins²

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