The Western Slope Conservation Center (WSCC) has had some recent conservation efforts come to fruition. Executive director Hannah Stevens talks about those efforts. She will be part of a panel discussion about how people in Colorado and across the West are working together to safeguard landscapes and wildlife.
Located in the heart of conservation country in Paonia, Colorado, the Western Slope Conservation Center continues to stay busy with many projects including public lands advocacy and habitat stewardship and restoration. Hannah Stevens, Executive Director for the WSCC, says they’re excited about all the projects happening right now for WSCC.
“One big project that listeners might already be familiar with is the Farmer's Diversion Project. So, a two-and-a-half-million-dollar project that is going to be redesigning and reconstructing the Farmer's Diversion, which is located just upstream of Paonia,” Stevens said. “And one exciting thing about that is that there's going to be a fish passage built-in to restore some ecosystem health in our riparian zones along the North Fork of the Gunnison River.”
Stevens shared more exciting news: DarkSky International will officially recognize the Gunnison Gorge National Conservation Area as a Dark Sky Park. WSCC worked with the BLM and the Colorado Canyons Association for some time on that application.
Several weeks ago, the final forest plan for WSCC’s local Grand Mesa in Uncompaghre National Forest was released. This plan will guide management decisions for the millions of acres of forest in the area. The WSCC and many others in the community spent a long time participating in that process – seven years, to be exact – working along with the National Forest Service on that plan.
“We were really excited in the end to see at least some of the winds. We did manage to work to get some new recommended wilderness areas within our watershed. So that we thought was a really positive outcome,” explained Stevens. “One of the more recent campaigns we've been working on is the Gunnison Outdoor Resources Protection Act (GORP Act), and that is legislation that is due to be introduced sometime in September.”
That legislation is an outgrowth of years and years of work that was done around the Gunnison Public Lands Initiative. More recently, the WSCC was able to work with Senator Bennett's office and Delta County to get some significant protections for the North Fork Valley watershed included in the GORP Act.
“If passed, and we'll be working to secure support and help see that legislation passed … it’ll include an oil and gas withdrawal for much of the North Fork Valley and that's something that this community has been working on for many, many years,” said Stevens. “And of course, everybody knows if you listen to the conservation center talking in the last several years about the Bureau of Land Management Resource Management Plan, we are entering what we think will be the final stages of that plan.”
The WSCC expects the final draft plan to be introduced later this year. They'll be looking at that management plan and helping the community figure out the best way forward.
Stevens will be a part of the guest panel for Beyond 2024, a conversation about how people in Colorado and across the West are working together to safeguard landscapes and wildlife.
“We're aiming to talk about what some durable conservation solutions look like locally for the Western Slope and even more regionally. And I'm looking forward to talking with the other co-panelists about all the ways that we're doing that,” Stevens said.
The event's Building Durable Conservation Solutions panel discussion takes place at 5:30 p.m. on Saturday, September 7th at Blue Sage Center for the Arts with a reception to follow.
For more information contact Blue Sage Center for the Arts.
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