Our work to protect the landscapes and communities across the San Juan Basin is oft-times a roller-coaster. While we were recently celebrating the tangible energy transition from coal to solar with groundbreaking at the San Juan Solar project near Farmington, we were also continuing our legal quest to once and for all end the threat of the Village at Wolf Creek, the ill-conceived plan by a Texas developer for a city of 8,000 people in one of Colorado’s snowiest locations over 10,000 feet atop Wolf Creek Pass.
Thanks to the support of like-minded folks like you, we’ve had the resources to engage on these issues and more. Let’s take a tour of priorities for the coming year.
Not only are we aiming to keep Wolf Creek Pass free of a new city in the form of the Village at Wolf Creek, our public lands manager, John Rader, is organizing backcountry winter recreation enthusiasts to get involved with Forest Service plans for addressing increasing recreation use among motorized snowmobile users, backcountry skiers, and solitude-loving wildlife like lynx.
The Alliance’s climate and energy program staff, Mike Eisenfeld and Emelie Frojen, are telling the story of successful energy and economic transition in northwest New Mexico through the juxtaposition of large new solar projects immediately adjacent to the shuttered San Juan Generating Station coal plant.
Our Animas Riverkeeper, Sara Burch, is building on the popular riparian restoration workshop we hosted in September to advance projects to improve riparian zones that will also enhance resiliency to forest fires.
Colorado is on track to reintroduce wolves in western Colorado in December, 2023. The Alliance’s wildlife program manager, Gary Skiba, will continue to organize outreach to stakeholders with concerns and offer tools to help avoid depredation by wolves on livestock.
For over thirty-five years, members like you have supported these efforts, allowing us to safeguard this incredible corner of the world.
Please consider an end-of-year donation to bolster our ability to respond and persist into the coming year. Your contribution will have an immediate impact in protecting the places you love most. Thank you.
