| RS 2477 Roads Threaten Refuge
Lands!
(Note: This is more from 'the other side.' Just so you know, they love to use language deception to arouse emotions and dull intellect. Words like 'threaten,' 'critical,' 'detrimental,' and many more.) June 24, 2003 By C. Max Schenk Director of Friends and Constituent Outreach National Wildlife Refuge Association 54 East Main Street Gloucester, MA 01930 800-996-NWRA (6972) office Fax: 202-333-9077 The National Wildlife Refuge Association needs your united voice to help prevent 50 miles of roads being constructed through the 13,000 acre Browns Park National Wildlife Refuge in Colorado. The decision would also have implications for the development of roads on National Wildlife Refuges across the country! Your emails, calls, letters, faxes to Bill Owens, governor of Colorado, could stop a local judgment from being used as a precedent to build roads on all refuge lands! Detailed background and contact information is provided, below. Here's what to do In your communications, include these 3 points: 1) That you are opposed to the RS 2477 decision in Moffat County, Colorado, allowing for the construction of roads in the Browns Park National Wildlife Refuge. 2) That the Browns Park Refuge is a natural resource treasure, with critical habitat supplies more than 220 aviary species (including Golden and Bald eagle, Sandhill cranes and Sage Grouse) with over 13,000 acres of undisturbed breeding habitat and that over 20,000 waterbirds utilize the Refuge in the spring and fall months. 3) That as a supporter of the National Wildlife Refuge System, you want Governor Owens to reject Moffat County's RS 2477 claims because you believe that they would have a detrimental effect on the natural resource conservation of refuge lands and habitats across America. Send emails to: governorowens@state.co.us Call the Governor's office at: 303-866-2471 Addressed your letters to: The Honorable Bill Owens Governor State of Colorado 136 State Capitol Denver, CO 80203-1792 Send faxes to: 303 866-2003 Background Browns Park NWR is in Moffat County Colorado. On January 10, 2003, the Moffat County Board of County Commissioners approved a resolution which purports to "exercise [the Commissioners"] right to assert Moffat County highway rights-of-way on federal lands within Moffat County under R.S. 2477. The map accompanying the resolution shows the County claiming over 2,000 miles of routes in northwest Colorado -- more than enough to drive from Denver to Boston. These claims include 240 miles of highway rights-of-way cutting through Dinosaur National Monument, 53 miles within the Browns Park National Wildlife Refuge, and miles within every Wilderness Study Area (WSA), citizen-proposed wilderness, and Forest Service road-less area in the county. Impacts to America's special places could be devastating! RS 2477 is a Civil War era law. The law states: "The right-of-way for the construction of highways over public land, not reserved for public uses, is hereby granted. The law was repealed by Congress in 1976, but where local governments can show that a "highway" was "constructed" prior to 1976, or prior to the land being reserved for public uses (such as national parks, forests, monuments, or wildlife refuges) -- whichever is earlier -- local governments can allege that they have a right-of-way and therefore the "road" can be developed as a public highway. Browns Park NWR is one of our nation's premier waterfowl and upland bird production areas. It supplies more than 220 aviary species with over 13,000 acres of undisturbed breeding habitat. Nearly 1,500 acres of wetlands provide excellent breeding habitat for teal, widgeon, gadwall, mallards, other ducks and Canada geese. It is estimated that nearly 2,500 ducklings and 300 goslings hatch annually in the refuge. The refuge's shrub lands provide vital habitat for several species of concern -- namely, the loggerhead shrike, sage grouse, sage sparrow, sage thrasher, and Brewers sparrow. The Green River that runs through the heart of the refuge provides excellent habitat for wintering bald eagles, nesting osprey, endangered river otters, beaver, and the endangered Colorado pikeminnow. |