San Luis Valley Regional Habitat Conservation Plan Draft for Public Review
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1.5Benefits to the Covered SpeciesImplementation of this HCP will benefit the covered species by providing a comprehensive regional conservation approach for riparian habitat in the Valley. In general, the mitigation approach outlined in this HCP will compensate for temporary impacts to low quality, marginal habitat with the conservation, management, and enhancement of high quality habitat. This HCP also is designed to complement and benefit additional voluntary habitat conservation efforts, beyond what is required to mitigate the impacts of the covered activities. Outreach and education efforts will encourage private landowners to reduce impacts to the species on private lands, and encourage long-term conservation of habitat. By mitigating impacts with the conservation/enhancement of higher quality habitat, supporting ongoing habitat conservation, and encouraging landowner stewardship, this HCP will benefit the covered species and contribute to their long-term survival and recovery in the wild. 1.6Benefits to the CommunitiesThis HCP benefits landowners and communities in the Valley by allowing the covered activities to continue with a greater degree of regulatory certainty, and eliminating the need for the costly and inefficient pursuit of ESA compliance on a case-by-case basis. In addition, this HCP provides the District, the State, local jurisdictions, including quasi-municipal corporations, conservation organizations, and private landowners a framework to coordinate ongoing riparian conservation efforts. This allows the historically progressive conservation community to focus its voluntary conservation efforts in areas with direct benefit to the covered species while maintaining and bolstering their cooperative working relationships with private landowners, local governments, and Federal and State agencies. Finally, this HCP provides ESA coverage for the covered activities while allowing water managers to maintain the State’s legal obligations under the Rio Grande Compact and the State system of water rights administration. 1.7Description of Applicants and BeneficiariesApplicantsThe Applicants for an ITP pursuant to this HCP are:
The State of Colorado Department of Natural Resources (DNR) seeks ITP coverage for the activities of the Colorado Parks and Wildlife, Division of Water Resources, and other DNR divisions10 as they conduct the covered activities. The Counties and municipalities seek coverage for their activities and the activities of their citizens. While each entity shares the responsibility of implementing and enforcing the provisions contained within this HCP, the Rio Grande Water Conservation District will play a central role in coordinating HCP administration. The responsibilities of the Counties and individual communities in implementing this HCP are described in Section 5. Role of the Rio Grande Water Conservation DistrictThe Rio Grande Water Conservation District (District) will be an Applicant under the ITP, and will coordinate the permit and HCP implementation on behalf of the other Applicants. The District was created in 1967 to represent the San Luis Valley in litigation concerning the interstate Rio Grande Compact (Compact), and continued to play a central role in managing the Rio Grande watershed to meet Compact obligations. The District was established for the express purpose of safeguarding the waters of the Rio Grande, and its tributaries, to which Colorado is equitably entitled by the Compact, Colorado Revised Statutes (CRS) § 37-66-101 et seq. The District is a political subdivision of the State and includes within its boundaries cities, towns, water conservancy districts, water user associations, and irrigation companies in the Valley. It is managed and controlled by a Board of Directors, each of whom is appointed by county commissioners to represent Alamosa, Conejos, Rio Grande, Saguache, and Mineral Counties, and is funded by levying taxes on real property within its boundaries. 11 The Board gives direction to a General Manager who oversees the District’s employees and ongoing activities. The District represents a majority of the Valley’s citizens, including farmers, irrigators, ranchers, and residents of the cities and towns across most of the Valley. The District has a history of leadership on a number of informational, educational, and environmental initiatives that have benefited the Valley and helped to manage its scarce resources, especially water. For example, the District proposed Federal legislation to create the Great Sand Dunes National Park and Preserve and the Baca National Wildlife Refuge (NWR), and to establish the Rio Grande Natural Area to protect the riparian corridor of the Rio Grande. The District also has helped with ongoing development of the Rio Grande Decision Support System (a data-driven ground water and surface water model to help the State Engineer better understand and administer the water system of the Valley). The District is working to establish ground water management subdistricts Valley-wide that are designed to generate revenue to calculate and replace injurious depletions resulting from well pumping within the subdistricts to surface streams, and to ensure the aquifer system in the Valley is maintained in a sustainable condition. The District has provided research and litigation support for the State Engineer, who promulgated rules limiting new uses of water from the confined aquifer of the Valley. As part of its charge of safeguarding the waters of the Rio Grande to help Colorado meet its Compact obligations, the District helped develop the Closed Basin Project, which primarily provides supplemental water to the Rio Grande system to ensure that Colorado sends its legally obligated portion of Rio Grande water to the state line for the benefit of New Mexico, Texas, and Mexico. However, secondarily, the Closed Basin Project provides water to enhance wildlife in the Alamosa NWR and Blanca Wildlife Habitat Area. The District cooperatively administers the Closed Basin Project with the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation (Reclamation). The District is the logical entity to administer this HCP on behalf of the jurisdictions and residents within the Valley. The District’s boundaries roughly coincide with the HCP boundary, and the District Board includes members appointed by the elected commissioners of four of the six counties supporting this HCP. As a regional entity, the role of the District will be to facilitate the administration and implementation of this HCP. The District may pursue intergovernmental agreements with the DNR and Counties if needed to ensure that responsibility for implementing the terms and conditions of an ITP is shared among the local entities that have regulatory authority over covered areas.
BeneficiariesThe beneficiaries of this HCP are the State DNR agencies (primarily CPW and DWR), individual landowners, counties, municipalities, quasi-municipal corporations including water conservancy districts, and other entities within the Valley that will have better regulatory assurances as they conduct the covered activities that could affect the covered species and their habitat. |