Same as it ever was, Red's saga continues.

    

{edited 1/19/16, 2:45 PM - I wrote this after an already long day and made a mess of some of dates.  My apologies, think I've finally gotten the tangled mess properly straightened out. }

This was originally posted March 21, 2012.  Considering today's news I thought it would be appropriate to dust it off a bit, update it a bunch and share.

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The Village at Wolf Creek, It’s A Scandal  (March 21, 2012)

Let me tell you a story about a man called Red, a gambling man with a plan.  He was going to buy into Colorado's high mountain Real Estate game during those booming 1980s.  The plan, buy up a few scattered private parcels that were besmirching the lower Saguache Ranger District of the Rio Grande National Forest. It was nice land; land the Rio Grande Forest Service had been eyeing in order to consolidate ownership of that range land and clean up their map.  Red had it all figured out.

With those chips in hand Red saddled up to the public lands real estate table, proposing to trade his coveted Saguache District chips for an incredible jackpot smack in the middle of the high country, near US Highway 160 just shy of Wolf Creek Pass and the ski area smack in a beautiful productive watershed, headwaters to the Rio Grande River don't you know.  

In 1986 after due process Red’s proposal was rejected by RGNF officials because the Albert Park parcel was too precious to lose, consolidated Saguache District map be damned.

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. 

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

I'll admit when the Village at Wolf Creek Access decision came down last November, I was neck deep in other projects and it all seemed so hopeless that I really didn't tune in too much.  After all it's not like I can do anything about it.  

Then a couple days ago a chance conversation made me aware of the planned Saturday June 20th "Honor Wolf Creek" celebration up at Wolf Creek Ski Area.

It seemed to matter again, at least it seemed worth trying again.  Perhaps there were some more friends of Wolf Creek out there who are ready to become informed about the current situation and become involved.

Thus, this flurry of blog posts, while I myself have been catching up on news stories I'd avoided, such as this one from Jimbo Buickerood of the San Juan Citizens Alliance.

It makes the point that there are some serious flaws, gaps and legal issues with the Village at Wolf Creek Access Project EIS.

To me, that means there is hope and there is need for more people to become proactive - because there is the possibility of forcing the Rio Grande National Forest and their regional bosses to reassess this situation from a more realistic contemporary perspective rather than their current attitude that the government is beholden to Mr. McCombs' ill-considered development obsession, simply because he got thwarted in his sneaky back room high stakes political poker game.  

After all, we the people are supposed to be boss, it is our land.  But that only works if we assert ourselves. 

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Forest Service paves the way for Pillage at Wolf Creek

http://sanjuancitizens.org/forest-service-paves-way-pillage-wolf-creek/

By Jimbo Buickerood  |  San Juan Citizens Alliance  |  November 20, 2014
(I added the bold highlights)

Today’s decision by Rio Grande National Forest Supervisor Dan Dallas to approve a land exchange on top of Wolf Creek Pass requested by billionaire Red McCombs is both a disappointing and absurd decision to “green light” a development that would deface the inherent wild beauty of the area and ignore the widespread public opposition to the huge development.

Rejecting the Village At Wolf Creek, list of go-to info and resources

Now that the Rio Grande National Forest and USDA seems to have given LMJV a green light for their grandiose speculative venture, it's time for We The People to take up the slack.

The challenge is to convince the powers-that-be, both political/regulatory and McCombs' LMJV principles, that bulldozing Alberta Park watershed is akin to a crime against present and future Rio Grande River stakeholders  -  and that frankly, it's unacceptable in this day and age of decreasing water availability.

The Alberta Park watershed is in need of concerned citizens who will speak up to defend and explain the wisdom in allowing it to remain the unmolested biologically productive natural resource that it is.

Here are introductions to the three organizations who have steadfastly defended the interests of Alberta Park's biological community, literally a keystone of the Wolf Creek watershed, source waters for the interstate international Rio Grande river. 

http://friendsofwolfcreek.org
http://sanjuancitizens.org
http://www.slvec.org

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