ANILCA - Village at Wolf Creek's Trump Card.

A message for concerned citizens:

“... Regardless of any legal action, the Wolf Creek Village plan will require many more years of planning, with the developer needing a permit from the Colorado Department of Transportation to access U.S. 160 and permits from Mineral County. 

“There are a lot of opportunities for public participation on upcoming decisions that will probably stretch out for quite a long time,” Mark Pearson (with the San Juan Citizens Alliance) said. “There are enormous physical and structural limitations for a village up there. Is there enough water to support the city they are proposing to build? How are they going to get power up there? All this will require some significant planning and public scrutiny.”          ( reported by Jason Blevins )

This post is a collection of information regarding ANILCA (the Alaska National Interest Lands Conservation Act,), and it will be updated as new information becomes available.  

It’s important because a controversial section of that Act has become LMJV’s trump card in forcing the USDA-USFS into supporting their development wishes, rather than pursuing a strategy of ecological caution and getting Alberta Park returned to the RGNF.

As for ANILCA §3210(a), basically when vast tracks of Alaska lands became part of the Federal Land Policy and Management Act of 1976, this provision was added to the follow up ANILCA Act of 1980.  The intention was to guarantee private land owners (that now found themselves landlocked within the newly established federally owned lands) road access.

Whereas at Alberta Park, RGNF, is a situation where the parcel of land was torn away from the Rio Grande National Forest by some heavy handed '80 style Washington DC political wheeling and dealing, that had USDA rejecting their own Rocky Mtn. Region USDA-USFS experts' considered facts and reversing their decision to reject Red McComb original devious land swap offer.  

The Alberta Park parcel, in the middle of Wolf Creek watershed should never have been removed from the Rio Grande National Forest to begin with.  It was and is a mistake that I believe deserves being reversed in light of contemporary Rio Grande River Basin water issues, and ecological common sense.

ANILCA §3210. Access by owner to nonfederally owned land

For the sake of the Rio Grande River, NO Village at Wolf Creek.

 

AmericanRivers.org/rio-grande river

Because river systems are so critical to human thriving and commerce it makes sense to focus on protecting and nurturing those systems to guarantee our children will enjoy their benefits.  Toward this end I think John Wesley Powell had a great idea when he advocated for western state lines to be drawn along river drainage basin boundary lines. 

See, John Wesley Powell’s Report on the Lands of the Arid Regions of the United States (1878)

It’s too late for that, still, the importance of clean healthy rivers to downstream stakeholders, remains as crucial as ever.  Especially as water levels drop.

Alberta Park sits below the Great Divide mountain slopes of the Wolf Creek snowshed, located within the Rio Grande National Forest.  Its meltwater feeds through Alberta Park on the way to the Rio Grande River, and that gets way too little attention in this controversy were it sometimes feels like legalities and tossing papers at each other is the only thing that matters.  

This posting is dedicated to the Rio Grande River and is basically a collection of articles, a bibliographic resource for learning some important background.

Alberta Park at Wolf Creek needs advocates to start lobbying the USDA-USFS powers-that-be to begin making every effort possible to reconsider going forward with this 1980’s speculative luxury retreat.  Why?  This is 2024, not the go-go ‘80s, environmentally and sociologically (read stakeholders) - the realities of the Rio Grande River Basin have become way more challenging.  

I’m no expert, but I do know enough to seek out experts and get my facts from them.  That’s what this bibliographic collection is all about, sharing important information with the friends of Wolf Creek & Alberta Park.

We The People should be able to expect the USDA-USFS to start incorporating the Rio Grande River and the greater good, along with science and climate realities.  It’s time to get serious about prioritizing the health of the Rio Grande River system, as paramount over some developer’s glory pipe dream.

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GETTING TO KNOW THE RIO GRANDE RIVER

Texas Water Resources Institute - by Kerry Halladay - email - 2024

 HYDROLOGY OF THE WOLF CREEK PASS AREA

MountainStudies.org - Dr. November 7, 2014 - Project Leader: Mark Williams (University of Colorado)

A RIVER STRETCH BEYOND ITS MEANS

Wild Earth guardians.org - email - 2024

A DRYING RIVER - The Rio Grande is in peril, and the consequences have already manifested

Erick S. Albarran - medium.com - Environmental Issue Profiles 2021

CLIMATE-SMART CONSERVATION ALONG THE RIO GRANDE RIVER

Janessa Price - WorldWildlife.org - 

RIO GRANDE IN HIGH DEMAND

American rivers.org

ABOUT THE RIO GRANDE RIVER

Rio Grande International Study Center - 

THE RIO GRANDE WATERSHED IS AT ITS ECOLOGICAL BREAKING POINT. 

By: Rio Grande Waterkeeper - March 21, 2019

RIO GRANDE WATER FUND

Protecting forests and water in northern New Mexico.

THE RIO GRANDE RIVER WATER

Pennsylvania State University - e-education course

RESTORING THE NATURAL FLOW OF THE RIO GRANDE-RIO BRAVO RIVER

Daniel Vernick, December 07, 2023 - Worldwildlife.org

THE RIO GRANDE ISN’T JUST A BORDER - IT’S A CRISIS!

By Vianey Rueda &  Drew Gronewold - October 23, 2023  - The Conversation Media Group

CLIMATE-SMART CONSERVATION ALONG THE RIO GRANDE 

World Wild Life Fund - Janessa Price - 2024

RIO GRANDE, A DRYING RIVER

Erick S. Albarran - March 21, 2021 - medium.com

THE RIO GRANDE RIVER - InTeGrate

Interdisciplinary Teaching about Earth for a Sustainable Future

Water Matter - THE RIO GRANDE AS AN INTERNATIONAL RIVER

By Margaret J. Vick, J.S.D. (2012) - Utton Transboundary Resources Center - University of New Mexico

PUBLIC REPORTS FROM WOLF CREEK SUMMIT  above Alberta Park, Colorado

Air & Water Database Public Reports 

CLIMATE OF THE SOUTHWEST UNITED STATES

EarthatHome.org/

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(3of3) Village at Wolf Creek, Ryan Bidwell 'the early years' 2009

Ryan Bidwell’s informative VWC backstory, given in Pagosa Springs back in 2009, at about the end of the first LMJV epoch, and the beginning of Red McCombs' land swap epoch, which ended a couple years ago.  I've transcribed the talk and added some important links where appropriate.  

This problem will flash back into the limelight once the Court hands down its decision and Leavell McCombs Joint Venture announces it's updated development plans for their high altitude luxury village on top of Alberta Park the hydrological heart of the Wolf Creek watershed. 

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Wolf Creek Village Presentation from Colorado Wild -- Part 7

Ryan Bidwell - (7/9)

Oct 22, 2009:  Ryan Bidwell, Executive Director of Colorado Wild, provides his group's position on the proposed Village at Wolf Creek. 

Filmed by D. West Davies  (AllThingsPagosa.com/), and of Jim Smith Realty at the Riverwalk Cafe in downtown Pagosa Springs.

Colorado Wild joined with the Center for Native Ecosystems and are now 

Rocky Mountain Wild

 

(2of3) Village at Wolf Creek, Ryan Bidwell 'the early years' 2009

Ryan Bidwell’s informative VWC backstory, given in Pagosa Springs back in 2009, at about the end of the first LMJV epoch, and the beginning of Red McCombs' land swap epoch, which ended a couple years ago.  I've transcribed the talk and added some important links where appropriate.  

What follows is part two of a three part series and it's intended to help inform a younger generation about this decades old unresolved issue.  A problem that will come back into the public limelight once the Court hands down its decision regarding the access road in the next months.

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Wolf Creek Village Presentation from Colorado Wild -- Part 4

Ryan Bidwell - (4/9)

Oct 22, 2009:  Ryan Bidwell, Executive Director of Colorado Wild, provides his group's position on the proposed Village at Wolf Creek. 

Filmed by D. West Davies  (AllThingsPagosa.com/), and of Jim Smith Realty at the Riverwalk Cafe in downtown Pagosa Springs.

Colorado Wild joined with the Center for Native Ecosystems and are now 

Rocky Mountain Wild

(1of3) Village at Wolf Creek, Ryan Bidwell 'the early years' 2009

I intend to produce a series of informative write-ups dedicated to explaining why allowing LMJV to bulldoze a luxury "Village at Wolf Creek" into Alberta Park (~10,300’), - the hydrological heart of the Wolf Creek watershed in the Rio Grande National Forest - is inviting irreparable environmental damage, along with their own business failure, resulting in region wide unintended financial burdens.  

The evidence will argue that it’s in everyone’s best interest (including potential naive investors) to preserve this high elevation hydrological heart of the Wolf Creek watershed, which flows into the much beleaguered Rio Grande River, to leave it alone.  

I recognize I’m a life long unabashed tree-hugger, so it’s self-evident to me.  That’s why I’m going to make a point to minimize my own opining, and to allow the efforts of various authorities and experts to do the explaining.  

Since I've long been impressed with Ryan Bidwell’s informative 2009 backstory, given in Pagosa Springs, at about the end of the first LMJV epoch, and the beginning of Red McCombs' land swap epoch, which itself ended a couple years back - I've transcribed the talk.  

What follows is a three part series, each featuring three (10ish minute) segments and a transcription that I annotated with links to further details where appropriate.

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Wolf Creek Village Presentation from Colorado Wild -- Part 1

Ryan Bidwell - (1/9)

Oct 22, 2009:  Ryan Bidwell, Executive Director of Colorado Wild, provides his group's position on the proposed Village at Wolf Creek. 

Filmed by D. West Davies  (AllThingsPagosa.com/), and of Jim Smith Realty at the Riverwalk Cafe in downtown Pagosa Springs.

Colorado Wild joined with the Center for Native Ecosystems and are now 

Rocky Mountain Wild

A History of Village at Wolf Creek, RGNF - Ryan Bidwell's 2009 presentation

With election season just around the corner I thought it might be time to revisit the ongoing Leavell McCombs Joint Venture threat to the health and safety of Alberta Park at the headwaters of the already threatened Rio Grande River.  Unfortunately, Caucus Season isn't what it used to be, but I still plan to attend the La Plata Democratic Assembly in Durango this coming Saturday and do what I can to help remind folks that this issue is still a long way from getting resolved.  

Basically it will never get resolved unless We The People put pressure on the Rio Grande National Forest powers that be and convince them to shift and refocus USDA-RGNF priorities back to the needs of the endangered Rio Grande River, and returning Alberta Park to the Rio Grande National Forest, to serve the nation's needs as opposed to entertaining a greedy developer's speculative gamble.

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Village at Wolf Creek History

Ryan Bidwell, Executive Director of Colorado Wild 

A nine part series by West Davies

Recorded October, 2009

FRIENDS OF WOLF CREEK - CALL TO ACTION !!!

Friends of Wolf Creek call to action.

Hello to all you Friends of Wolf Creek and Alberta Park, can I share some important thoughts?

After years and decades of mostly being relegated to the sidelines, while promoters made slick presentations and the powers-that-be danced their dance, our time has arrived.  On May 19th, Senior District Judge Richard P. Matsch handed down his decision in the Civil Action of 15-cv-01342 - It nullified the land swap agreement between the Rio Grande National Forest / USDA and Leavell-McCombs Joint Venture (Village at Wolf Creek speculators).  

The Rio Grande Forest Service and USDA received a stinging rebuke for its one-sided approach and is currently digesting the judge’s decision.  The Village at Wolf Creek speculators once again find themselves back at first base with nothing to show for more than three decades of lobbying, beyond lost court battles and endless expenses.  

Now is the time when a significant ground-swell of the Friends of Wolf Creek proactively lobbying Red McCombs, perhaps even his McCombs Foundation and certainly the VWC website and the Rio Grande National Forest Administration could well have a resounding impact on their thinking, or at least their decisions moving forward.  You never know until you make the effort.

I don’t mean anything belligerent, that would be totally counter-productive!  I’m talking about striving to win hearts and minds.  Help in a friendly effort to educate and convince the source of the Alberta Park Problem of the error of their ways.

(edited 5/29/2017)

What’s RGNF/USDA learned from Judge Matsch’s rebuke?

The VWC Saga continues.  I have been in contact with the Forest Service and want to share our correspondence in keeping with my goal of being an information kiosk for those interested in helping save Alberta Park from destructive development. 

For this post I’m going to start with my second email to the Rio Grande National Forest and backtrack from there:

Dear Communication Officers Blakeman, Lujan and Superintendent Dallas,

Communication Officer Lawrence Lujan responded to my questions with a one-liner:  "We are evaluating the court’s ruling and have no further comment at this time."  Nothing more.  

No hint of when the public can hope to hear RGNF/USDA’s response to the reprimand it received from Senior Federal Judge Matsch regarding its handling of the Village At Wolf Creek land swap negotiations and subsequent Environmental Impact Study and Draft.

This matters because from the public’s perspective the RGNF/USDA has maintained a decidedly pro-development stance during the past decades of negotiating with the wheeler dealer from the Texan lowlands.  In the process it has relegated environmental issues such as wetlands, fens concerns, wildlife corridor issues, health issues, fundamental feasibility issues with the project - to irrelevant externalities to be addressed by someone else, somewhere down the road after the irreparable damage is underway.

Judge Matsch made clear how inappropriate that outlook and actions were.  

Appreciating Wolf Creek's ‘old-growth’ fens. Part one

Here is a Durango Telegraph article from December 2005, written by Adam Howell, it examines an interagency conflict that was triggered by the Army Corps of Engineers interfering with the Environmental Protection Agency's mandate to survey the Alberta Park wetlands, site of the proposed Village at Wolf Creek.

I share it because it highlights the conflicts between blindly pro-development where everything is viewed through the Land Developer's Lens - while those who are trying to assess landscapes for their own intrinsic values are rejected as valueless and ignored despite their own statutory mandates.

Though the article is ten years old, nothing has changed about the value of that wetlands, just as it is, nor about the inevitability of any development in Alberta Park at ±10,300' causing irreparable damage who's cascading consequences will negatively impact the entire watershed and the interstate international Rio Grande River plus it's stakeholders!

The fact that LMJV is moving the project a few hundred yards and slightly uphill and closer to the highway will not mitigate the unavoidable destruction.

Think before digging!

Reprinted with permission from The Durango Telegraph 
and posted here to information the interested.
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The Durango Telegraph

» December-29-2005 » Wetlands heat up Wolf Creek debate more at: http://no-villageatwolfcreek.blogspot.com/2012/05/durango-telegraph-village-at-wolf-creek.html Wetlands heat up Wolf Creek debate Agencies clash over mapping of ‘old-growth’ fens Skiers and snowboarders meander through the base area of Wolf Creek on Monday.  The Village at Wolf Creek, proposed not far from the current base area, is continuing  to stir up controversy. The Army Corps of Engineers and the Environmental  Protection agency are currently at odds over wetlands regulation. /Photo by Todd Newcomer.  by Adam Howell   Wetlands are currently boiling with controversy in the vicinity of Wolf Creek Ski Area. According to recently obtained e-mails, two agencies are throwing jabs in a recent bout over the regulation of wetlands as they relate to the proposed Village at Wolf Creek. According to the exchange, the Army Corps of Engineers’ Albuquerque District has prevented the Environmental Protection Agency from verifying the locations of wetlands at the site of the proposed developed.