- Water attorney urges local residents to be proactive in creating a National Conservation Area on the lower Dolores River.
- Cortez area weather has been abnormally warm and dry.
An attorney with expertise in water law and legislation is telling area residents he believes it’s better to act now to preclude federal designations on the lower Dolores River than to “wait and see what happens and then scream like banshees” if they don’t like the result. David Robbins spoke at a public meeting Wednesday night about draft legislation to create a national conservation area along the Dolores River corridor from McPhee Dam to near Bedrock, Colorado. The proposal was crafted by a grassroots committee to protect water rights, help native fish, and preserve the scenic corridor. The river has been declared “suitable” for a Wild and Scenic designation. Also, concerns have been raised that one or more of three native fish species in the river might be declared endangered, or that President Obama might create a national monument on the corridor. Robbins said it’s wiser to be proactive in dealing with such concerns, but some audience members were skeptical, saying a national conservation area might do more harm than good.
Whether you see it as wonderful or worrisome, weather in the Cortez area has been abnormally warm and dry for the past few weeks. Longtime local weather observer Jim Andrus says September temperatures were about 10 degrees above normal, and the month had only about a half-inch of rain, 34 percent of average. That followed an August with 84 percent of normal precipitation. However, temperatures are expected to drop this weekend, bringing highs in the 70s. That’s close to the historic average. Andrus says if the anticipated El Niño weather pattern does materialize, it should start producing wetter weather some time in October.
