Club 20 Fall Board Meeting

[Ann McCoy, chairman of the Club 20 Board will introduce]

[Please Recognize Reeves Brown, Executive Director of Club 20]

It is a pleasure to be around so many friends again, to talk about the many challenges posed by the changing face of the West.

The challenges, whether water shortages, overgrown forests or threatened species, have been gradual in coming, but the challenges they pose are profound

In our three-and-a-half years in office, we have done our best to meet the challenges - and to help you meet them. It has not been easy. The rhythms of politics are out of synch with those of nature, making long-term policy planning contentious. Yet our efforts must continuously be made, for nature is continuously changing.

Club 20 is an outstanding forum for discussing those changes and working through the challenges they present to Colorado's Western Slope.

You have debated many of those questions today. I understand that there will be a number of debates about meeting those challenges tomorrow.

I appreciate the chance to set the groundwork: To explain how the administration has met many of the environmental challenges in Colorado by working cooperatively with the state and local communities, and how we hope to continue to do so.

The policies have followed from the basic management philosophy I brought to the Department from my experiences in Colorado, the 4Cs of communication, consultation and cooperation, all in the service of conservation.

One of our proudest accomplishments has been in the area of wildfires. We all remember the worst fire in Colorado's history, the terrible Hayman fire of 2002. After burning through more than 60,000 acres in a single day, it eventually impacted more than 138,000 acres, and consumed more than 130 homes. Before that, the Storm King fire caused the worst loss of life for firefighters in recent years.

One of the reasons that the fire burned so fast and so furiously was a misguided federal forest policy that had led to an unnatural buildup of fuel.

Since the turn of the last century, the government tried to put out fires wherever they arose. The record fire seasons we are seeing on a regular basis are smoky testimony of the policy's unintended consequences.

The President pushed for passage for the Healthy Forests Restoration Act to change that century's worth of misguided bureaucratic momentum. Healthy Forests allows the clearing away of unnaturally high buildups of fuel - and unnecessarily high amounts of bureaucratic paperwork - so that landscapes are not turned into moonscapes during wildfires.

We have already treated more acres in our more than three years than the previous administration treated in all of its eight years.

Nationwide, we just met target for the number of acres to be treated this year-three weeks ahead of the end of the fiscal year. The Interior Department and the Forest Service have treated almost four times as many acres as burned in wildfires.

We are hoping to do even more in coming years. President Bush has proposed $760 million for the Healthy Forests Initiative in his budget for fiscal year 2005.

It will be some time before the forests return to a truly healthy condition, but at least some of the bureaucratic and literal brush has been cleaned out.

We are also thinking long-term about water issues. By the end of the barbeque tonight, some may be wondering if Colorado has enough whiskey. All of you know that it doesn't have enough water, which is why we need to work together to meet the challenges we face.

According to researchers, the Colorado River Basin is in the midst of its worst drought in 500 years. We are fortunate that previous generations built storage like Lake Mead and Lake Powell. Our reservoirs are still half full, and so we are not yet at the point of crisis. I hope Colorado's rainfall is pointing towards the end of the drought.

Nevertheless, we are continuing to make efforts to work cooperatively with states to deal with the drought. One of the actions that we have already taken is the Colorado River Water Delivery Agreement, which we celebrated last fall at Hoover Dam.

The agreement establishes-for the first time-a firm quantification of water rights among California's key water users.

It resolves problems that had persisted over the previous 75 years and brings to Colorado River water users a future with greater certainty than ever before.

Another action we took was finding a solution for the complex water rights issues of the Black Canyon of the Gunnison National Park. The agreement we reached meets the needs of the park and the needs of the local people.

The previous administration handled it in a more heavy-handed way. In January of 2001, the U.S. attorney for Colorado filed a huge federal water claim for the Black Canyon. This filing resulted in over 350 parties to this effort in court filings.

Our approach has been different. The cooperative agreement we have worked out with the state of Colorado demonstrates that we can work together in partnership to meet the needs of the park and the needs of local communities.

As Eric Wilkinson, Chairman of the Colorado Water Conservation Board said on the day the agreement was signed, "The State of Colorado has often said that the federal government should work with the State of Colorado to work together to accomplish mutual needs. And I think this is a shining example of that happening."

The reality is that our agreement provides a vast amount of water for the park. We are seeking, on average, more than 500,000 acre-feet per year. This amounts to 163 billion gallons of water (enough to meet the needs of more than one-half million families for more than a year).

There are some who say that we did not do enough. Yet resolving water rights disputes where reasonably possible helps prepare for the future as growing populations increase pressure on limited water supplies.

We are actively implementing our Water 2025 initiative, a framework that guides both current operations and our longer-range strategy. Water 2025 is not about imposing solutions from Washington. Rather, it is based on the idea that states, tribes, and local governments should play the leading part in meeting future water challenges.

The heart of Water 2025 is the Challenge Grant program. It seeks out local, collaborative projects that will help stretch water supplies. Our $4 million is helping projects that fund almost $30 million in on the ground water delivery improvements.

In Colorado, one Water 2025 grant went to the Mancos Water Conservancy District, which will be used to test the effectiveness of different materials for the canal lining of the Jackson Gulch Inlet Canal. Once lined, the canal will provide the District with 10-15 percent more water, easing tensions between domestic and agricultural users.

Another grant went to the Lower South Platte Water Conservancy District. It will help the district reimburse those who purchase and install flow measuring devices for large-scale wells, recharge facilities and ditch diversions by up to 50 percent.

Every year, over 10,000 acre-feet pumped are thought to be inaccurately accounted for. The water that is accurately quantified and replaced to the South Platte River can be used by all surface water users.

Even more Colorado residents are likely to benefit from Water 2025 grants next year, since the President has requested $21 million for the program for fiscal year 2005.

While Easterners have a hard time relating to Colorado's water shortages, they understand high energy prices. There are a lot of factors involved.

However, in today's uncertain and unpredictable world, we must work to enhance our home grown energy to meet our needs. Federal lands are a key component in meeting those needs. Over one-third of coal, oil and natural gas comes from federal lands. However we can and must work to access those resources in a responsible way, working with cooperating agencies such as the state of Colorado.

90 percent of new power plants are projected to be fueled by natural gas - only one part of our growing energy demands. Last year, Alan Greenspan warned that the growing gap between natural gas supply and demand is a "very serious problem for our economy."

It need not be that way. Our largest domestic onshore resource for natural gas is in the Rocky Mountains - specifically concentrated in five basins. They contain almost 140 trillion cubic feet of natural gas - enough to heat all of the 55 million homes presently using natural gas for almost the next 40 years.

We have not, nor will we ever, permit the willy-nilly leasing of Western lands for energy production. Yet the law requires that the Bureau of Land Management offer energy leases on a regular basis. It must be done carefully and it is being done responsibly.

Oil and gas production is occurring on only a small fraction of federal lands - less than 1 percent of the 262 million surface acres managed by the Bureau of Land Management. We have made a commitment to renewable energy as well: We are issuing more permits for wind and geothermal energy.

Energy production need not be antithetical to environmental protection. I am convinced that the two can go together under the guidance of policymakers and through the stewardship of citizens.

One way in which the Bureau of Land Management has been pursuing that goal is through the adoption of Best Management Practices. To fulfill them, it has been working with conservation groups, ranchers, energy leaders and the Western Governors Association.

The bureau recently issued a guidance requiring all Field Offices to identify, evaluate and incorporate appropriate site-specific Best Management Practices when evaluating applications to drill and right-of-way approvals. The Bureau is taking other steps as well, such as establishing an annual "Best Management Practices" award program.

Best management practices include reseeding disturbed areas as quickly as possible, siting wells in inconspicuous locations and minimizing roads.

Best management practices will be of particular importance when dealing with the threatened sage grouse. Some say the grouse could become the Spotted Owl of the Intermountain West…but the sage grouse occupies nearly 12 times as much land as the northern spotted owl.

Coal mining, natural gas production, electric transmission corridors, cattle grazing -- they are all right in the middle of sagebrush habitat in the West, so a sage grouse listing may have significant impacts for energy and other western activities.

We are encouraging conservation efforts by states and local organizations. For example, the State of Colorado and local conservation organizations purchased the Ochs Ranch Easement in Gunnison County. Interior provided some matching funding through our cooperative conservation grants. Neighboring ranch families work the land in exchange for either cash or easements on their ranches.

As a result, about 4,500 acres of sage grouse habitat have been protected, and the county has benefited. Many other voluntary efforts to protect the sage grouse are also underway.

Citizens draw important benefits from both dependable supplies of energy and a clean environment. The President and I are committed to achieving that balance. Yet we cannot do it without your help.

We are all partners in the process of environmental protection. Local residents like you are often better defenders of the earth than distant bureaucrats.

The federal government is neither all powerful, nor, and I am sure you will all agree, all-wise. As President Ronald Reagan once asked, "Where else but in Washington D.C. would they call the department of everything outdoors, the Department of the Interior?" The government must respect the limits of its wisdom and the lines of private-property owners.

Besides, I believe that handshakes of agreement produce far better results than heavy-handed mandates. The President and I want you to be involved with the process of conservation. We will continue to empower you when you do.

Over the past three years, my department has committed more than $1.3 billion to advancing environmental protection though cooperative conservation. Those funds enhance partnerships and promote on-the-ground results.

The Cooperative Conservation Initiative provides matching grants to locals - whether landowners, county governments or environmental groups - who become active conservationists.

A few weeks ago, the president signed an executive order on Cooperative Conservation. It commits the government to advancing environmental protections through partnerships - to pushing for innovative policies while respecting private property rights.

The President's 2005 budget includes $507 million for cooperative conservation programs, an increase of 270 percent, above 2000.

While federal agencies have often seemed foes of landowners, I believe that they can, and should be good neighbors to them.

A good neighbor is one who will lend you a hand when you need it, but who will stay off your grass when you ask.
The President and I are doing our best to make the government more like a good neighbor than a bad manager, one more responsive to the needs of the West and the rhythms of its environment.

We have made a great deal of progress. Colorado's forests are being better cared for; its waters are being better conserved and some of its threatened species are coming back.

There is a great deal more to do, but I believe that it can be done - especially through partnerships with people like you. This administration will continue to help you meet the complex environmental challenges you face.

It has been a pleasure to add my voice to that of my friends at the "Voice of the Western Slope."

Thank you.