Sen. Michael Bennet walked the Animas River Trail on Thursday, enjoying the sunshine and sights made possible by a fund he and other senators saved from extinction last month.
“There’s not a county in American that doesn’t have a Land and Water Conservation project,” Bennet told a gathering of local officials and outdoor recreationists. “And it’s not just about wilderness areas. It also makes skate parks like this possible.”
Pointing to the Durango Skate Park in Schneider Park, Bennet lauded the countless projects throughout the state made possible by the Land and Water Conservation Fund, and stressed the need to make those funds permanent.
Last year, the conservation tool expired, raising concern whether a politically and ideologically divided Congress would reinstate the fund. It was extended for three years in December in the omnibus spending bill. Last month, senators passed an energy bill that would permanently reauthorize the fund. The 50-year-old conservation fund has brought more than $239 million to the state of Colorado, through a portion of royalties from offshore oil and gas drillings.
Locally, the city has been the beneficiary of $875,309 in grants for outdoor projects, including for Schneider, Needham and Rank parks, the Fort Lewis College picnic area, the Hillcrest Golf Course addition, and a portion of the Animas River Trail.
“The purpose of the Land and Water Conservation Fund is to benefit the conservation effort,” said Parks and Recreation Director Cathy Metz. “And it’s certainly done that in Durango.”
La Plata County Commissioner Julie Westendorff said the county has received about $1.5 million from the fund, enabling projects such as the Bodo State Wildlife Area and the Southern Ute Tribe’s Chief Ouray Memorial Park.
Regionally, the funds have preserved nearly 6,000-acres in Canyon of the Ancients National Monument, enabling the purchase of private inholdings. Other projects occurred in Mesa Verde National Park and the San Juan National Forest, where in 2010 almost 1,100 acres of forestland in the Ophir was purchased.
“(The LWCF) is probably our nation’s greatest conservation tool,” said The Wilderness Society’s senior director Jeremy Garncarz.
The energy bill that includes permanent reauthorization of the LWCF needs House approval. Bennet said he’s “optimistic” the House will find a way to pass the legislation.
jromeo@durangoherald.com