So sad, nothing is ever learned.
The McCombs have turned a deft ear to all the reasoned arguments. Facts don’t seem to matter. Objectively speaking, considering the community, the Rio Grande River, the Alberta Park watershed, all would best be served by that Alberta Park parcel being left alone to continue fulfilling it’s biological and hydrological services as the keystone to the Wolf Creek watershed and wilderness and an integral part of the Rio Grande National Forest from which it was absconded through a 1980s game of shady land grab poker.
Only obsessive greed and some bizarre need to despoil land for the sake of proving one’s own mastery can explain such obsession. Here we go again.
For a look at Senior Judge Matsch’s Order May 21, 2017 see the end of this post.
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Village at Wolf Creek appeals decision blocking access
Opponents say Forest Service skirted its duties
By Jonathan Romeo Herald staff writer, the DURANGO HERALD, October. 16, 2017
Leavell-McCombs Joint Venture – spearheaded by Texas billionaire B.J. “Red” McCombs – has filed an appeal with the next tier of the federal court system, challenging a previous federal judge’s decision that the massive development atop Wolf Creek Pass was approved “contrary to law.”
“The Joint-Venture believes strongly the project is a good project and the Forest Service did everything it needed to do to study the environmental impacts of that project,” said Bill Leone, an attorney representing the developers. The appeal was filed Friday. …
In May, Judge Richard P. Matsch, a senior U.S. district judge for the District of Colorado, in no uncertain terms, agreed.
“What NEPA (National Environmental Policy Act) requires is that before taking any major action, a federal agency must stop and take a careful look to determine the environmental impact of that decision, and listen to the public before taking action,” Matsch wrote in his decision. “The Forest Service failed to do that.”
In September, Matsch denied a request from Leavell-McCombs Joint Venture to reconsider the May decision.
“The Forest Service cannot abdicate its responsibility to protect the forest by making an attempt at an artful dodge,” Matsch wrote in that decision. …
