To support of my claim that when it comes to Alberta Park, the watershed as it currently exists is far more valuable to Rio Grande River stakeholders than the prospect of some speculative "luxury village" development scheme.
I submit this policy statement by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service: Fens landscapes are a "category 1" resource because they are "essentially irreplaceable." USFWS mandates that every reasonable effort should be made to protect them.
Such as stopping the destruction before it begins!
Consider the reality - bulldozing that land for a huge development is guaranteed to irreparable destroy the hydrologic integrity of the Alberta Park watershed with it's interlacing fens landscape, which stores and filters water for the Rio Grande River. Not to mention the destruction and disruption of that huge wildlife sanctuary.
Furthermore, consider the economic, environmental and water supply realities of 2015 and moving forward in time. The value of Alberta Park 'As Is' increases in leaps and bounds with every new year.
While the financial outlook for a "village" dedicated to the luxury vacation home market, hours and hours from the nearest airports of note, at over ten thousand feet elevation with it's 66% oxygen supply, get shakier with every season.
I submit the following evidence for the importance of leaving Alberta Park unmolested by speculative "development."
Regional Policy on the Protection of Fens, resource category 1, as amended
U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Region 6
January 20, 1999
From page two:
"Because of their uniqueness and importance, Region 6 decided that all its functioning fens, which were identified on U.S. Geological Survey, National Wetlands Inventory, ... fall within Resource Category 1 of the Service's "Mitigation Policy" (Federal Register Vol.16, No.15, February4, 1981).
The mitigation goal for Resource Category 1 is no loss of existing habitat value. In other words, because of the irreplaceability of the type habitat, every reasonable effort should be made to avoid impacting that habitat type."
