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Executive Director's Message
CWF has been very busy! Read below for the highlights of our work the past couple of months.
The legislative session ended on May 8. Each of the wildlife related bills for which we testified in support have been signed by the Governor. Click here to view these bills on our website.
Implementation of some of these new laws may begin soon and others will not be underway for another year. For example, HB 24-1379, to protect Colorado’s waters and wetlands from the U.S. Supreme Court’s unfortunate Clean Water Act decision, rulemaking in Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment’s Water Quality Control Commission will begin later this year.
The new wolverine reintroduction law (SB 24-171) authorizes Colorado Parks and Wildlife to reintroduce wolverines after a non-essential experimental population rule under 10 (j) for wolverines is published by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) under the Endangered Species Act because wolverine is listed as a threatened species. USFWS has committed to undertaking a NEPA process for a 10 (j) rule for wolverines in Colorado on an expedited timeline, with support from the State.
Aside from the legislative session, CWF remains diligent. CWF is submitting a comment letter to the BLM’s greater sage grouse draft plan in the context of Colorado. As noted in our April newsletter, this important species of the sagebrush ecosystem in Colorado and other western states needs a very good science-based conservation plan on public lands to guide future management that will enable its survival. The greater sage grouse has declined in overall populations by 80 percent since 1965 due in large part to habitat loss and degraded quality of sagebrush habitat that impacts many other species.
CWF has been involved in greater sage grouse planning processes for several years, beginning by working collaboratively among diverse interests to gain a good plan adopted in 2015 that was followed by proposed weakening of the plan in 2019. BLM's 2024 draft plan is intended to reverse the decline in greater sage grouse populations, ensure that the species continues not to warrant listing under the Endangered Species Act, protect intact sagebrush landscapes, achieve consistency across the species’ range, and become a durable management solution. We thank BLM for this planning process. Our assessment is that it would be best for BLM to select elements from three of its alternatives presented in the draft plan (alternatives 3, 4, and 5) as no one alternative is adequate. To make public comment to BLM by June 13, click here.
The important Fluid Mineral Leases and Leasing Process Rule we reported on in our April newsletter is under attack through a Continuing Resolution that will be voted upon this summer in the Senate. This legislation would circumvent and undermine the administrative process, ignore significant public input across the West, and halt a long overdue update to the federal onshore oil and gas leasing program that protects taxpayers, public lands and the wildlife and communities who rely on them.
CWF submitted a comment letter to BLM this week for its proposed third quarter oil and gas lease sale of a 120-acre parcel in the Pawnee National Grassland. It is one of the first lease sales under the new rule and appears in alignment with the rule's leasing preference criteria. The stipulations prohibit surface disturbance of the mule deer severe winter range and winter concentration area, mountain plover breeding season area, and Colorado's aquatic native species stream that bisects the property. BLM also does not anticipate a well pad would be placed on the parcel due to its drainages and horizontal drilling technology. Therefore, in our letter, CWF has raised cautions but not an objection to the potential lease. Our large coalition is engaged in solid defense of the rule.
In addition, CWF has provided letters and comment to the Parks and Wildlife Commission at its meetings regarding development of the Big Game Season Structure for 2025-2029. We have addressed herd health, hunt quality and economic impact to Colorado Parks and Wildlife.
Suzanne O’Neill
Executive Director, CWF
cwfed@coloradowildlife.org
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