Members of a Durango-based group intended to help protect five rivers around southwestern Colorado have gone their separate ways after 10 years together. The River Protection Workgroup, a collection of water managers from the Southwestern Water Conservation District and conservation organizations like Trout Unlimited, The Wilderness Society, and San Juan Citizens Alliance, had its final meeting in May. According to the group’s facilitator, Marsha Porter-Norton, one of the group’s main achievements was to create a federal wilderness and special management area on Hermosa Creek.
“What they did not accomplish, and they agreed to disagree in a very civil way, is to do sort of a big ‘trade off’ among all the rivers-- making one of them wild and scenic and then releasing suitability on a few others,” Porter-Norton said.
The river in question was Hermosa Creek, which would have been considered for a federal Wild and Scenic designation, but that designation would have excluded other rivers from any federal protection. Because of the highly legal nature of the question, the stakeholders decided it would be easier to work for river protections outside the workgroup.
Click below to listen to a full interview with Marsha Porter-Norton.
