Problems with the VWC Access Project EIS - Ignoring the Lynx Issue - San Juan Citizens Alliance

Here's another news release that I'd like to add to this collection.  It's from the San Juan Citizens Alliance along with the San Luis Valley Ecosystem Council and Rocky Mountain Wild, it's an update to the SJCA news article of last November that's featured in the preceding blogpost.

Friends of Wolf Creek: 

"Wolf Creek Access Project Administrative Objection 

+ 38 supporting Exhibits"

http://friendsofwolfcreek.org/wolf-creek-access-project-administrative-objection-exhibits/

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Forest Service ignores objections to land exchange at Wolf Creek Pass

http://sanjuancitizens.org/forest-service-ignores-objections-to-land-exchange-at-wolf-creek-pass/

By Erika Brown  |  March 31, 2015

For Immediate Release:
March 26, 2015
Matt Sandler, Attorney, Rocky Mountain Wild, matt@rockymountainwild.org
Christine Canaly, Director SLVEC slvwater@fairpoint.net
Jimbo Buickerood, San Juan Citizens Alliance jimbo@sanjuancitizens.org

Forest Service Ignores Concerns Raised in Objection to Proposed Land Exchange at Wolf Creek Pass, and Confirms that Decision Does Not Protect Lynx

Golden, CO – ... The Forest Service’s response to formal Objections filed by numerous organizations and individuals largely ignored concerns that have plagued the Forest Service for decades. However, the land exchange cannot take place until Rio Grande Forest Supervisor Dan Dallas explains why he didn’t follow existing Lynx protections in deciding to approve the land exchange. ...

(...)

There is a slim chance that the Forest Supervisor could still choose protection of public land and Lynx over the private development proposal. “This land exchange decision violates the Southern Rockies Lynx Amendment and the planned development is in the middle of a lynx corridor that connects habitat critical to lynx survival and recovery,” said Christine Canaly, Executive Director of the San Luis Valley Ecosystem Council. “It will forever compromise and destroy good lynx habitat and impair the chances for this threatened species to recover to a full, secure population in Colorado. The Forest Service response confirms that the development is not compatible with the lynx, but it also gives the Forest Supervisor permission to approve the exchange after explaining why he decided to violate existing lynx protections, ” noted Canaly.