Megan Corrigan, a veteran Colorado activist just returning to the state after graduate school in Montana, joined the crew at the beginning of January as our new staff biologist.  Adding Megan to the team will provide some welcome relief for Erin, now our senior staff biologist, who for years has been doing the work of two or three biologists.  Megan will focus on our energy campaign as well as campaigns to secure long-term protection for the Dolores River and Dominquez Canyons areas of southwestern Colorado and Utah.  Not only is Megan a skilled and dedicated activist with years of experience protecting our region’s forests and water, but she’s also a Center for Native Ecosystems alumni, having worked as an administrative assistant in the office years ago.

We are also thrilled to welcome Melissa Haniewicz (not an easy name to pronounce!), our new development associate.  For years we’ve thought it would be cool to have someone focusing on keeping our members up to date on our work, making it easy for them to contribute to our advocacy, and growing the size of our membership.  Now we do.  Melissa, who joins us with experience in both the fundraising and funding worlds, also meets our very rigorous “do we think this person will be fun to have around” test with a resounding “yes” (a critically important quality not only for office morale but also for working with members).  Even though our office is getting pretty full now (six full-time folks and a few more part-timers) it is awesome having everyone on board.

"Seeking Balance in U.S. Farm & Food" and the more than 350 local, state and national environmental, human rights and agricultural groups  who signed on to it will be officially announced this Monday January 22nd.  Meanwhile, with more than 90% of the habitat of threatened, endangered and at-risk species on private land in the U.S., we believe strengthening and broadening our relationships with Colorado agriculture and landowners on working together to improve U.S. Department of Agriculture conservation incentive programs is vital to our conservation work.

Conservation incentive programs, which range from financial and technical assistance to landowners assisting in the conservation and recovery of endangered species and their ecosystems  to conservation easements, are extremely popular with ranchers and farmers. Nonetheless, these programs are severely lacking in funds, with more than three-fourths of applicants turned down. For more information about our collaboration with agriculture groups such as American Farmland Trust and Rocky Mountain Farmers Union, see Summit on  Conservation Incentives blog. 

As for how things are shaping up nationally for our advocacy work in 2007, we've gotten off to an awfully auspicious start - conservation-minded electeds are now running the U.S. House and Senate environmental committees, with oversight, accountability and proper funding of the Endangered Species Act as some of their top priorities. Even the Bush administration has recently showed signs of promise. In response to a lawsuit filed by Center for Biological Diversity, Natural Resources Defense Council, Greenpeace and others, the administration officially recognized that polar bear populations are declining and might warrant listing under the Endangered Species Act.  The administration has even been vaguely hinted that climate change and a lack of sea ice might be the problem. This from an administration that through most of 2006 hasn't even admitted climate change existed. The times, they are a-changin'.

Many of you know that we are based in Denver, in the Lower Downtown neighborhood (LoDo to us locals).  What you may not know is that we are located in one of Denver's and the country's greenest old buildings, run by the Alliance for Sustainable Colorado.  The building, known as the Alliance Center, is a former 1880s warehouse next to the Tattered Cover Bookstore.  It has been redesigned and retrofitted on the interior with all sorts of environmentally-friendly construction materials and now serves as a venue where companies that make such products can showcase their materials.  From the carpeting made from recycled plastic bottles to the wall insulation made from recycled clothing fibers, the building's interiors have been constructed from low-impact and energy-efficient materials wherever possible.  That, combined with the Alliance's attempts to use the existing structural elements of the building (like its brick walls and giant post-and-beam interior supports), have earned the Alliance Center an impressive two LEED certifications, one for "existing structures" and another for "commerical interiors."  LEED certification is the universally recognized benchmark for environmentally sustainable building practices, and there is only one other building in the entire country that has earned two LEED certifications before.  LEED certification (which stands for Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) doesn't just recognize the use of recycled materials in construction; it addresses energy efficiency as well.  Therefore, the Alliance Center's use of low-water fixtures in the building's bathrooms and high-efficiency lighting and electrical systems factored into its certifications as well.

The Alliance Center is much more than just a green building, however.  Now that it is fully operational and occupied to capacity, it also serves as an epicenter for all sorts of progressive issues, from environmental conservation to community health care.  The broad diversity of organizations that make their home in the Alliance Center make it a valuable community resource.  That diversity also encourages synergy among the tenants.  Many of our closest partner organizations, like Colorado Environmental Coalition and Southern Rockies Ecosystem Project, are here in the building with us, which makes collaboration as easy as walking across the hall.  The building also allows us to share resources, like photocopiers and fax machines, so each organization can save the money it would take to purchase these items individually.

Needless to say, we couldn't be happier to be located in such a building, and we encourage you to stop by and visit us.  Not only would you get to say hello to our staff (we're hard-working, but also always fun and friendly, of course), but you can check out the building and all its green features.  The Alliance Center offers a self guided tour (brochures and maps are available in the main lobby on the first floor), and guided tours are available by appointment.  If you can't make it down to see us in person, try the Alliance's virtual tour of the building on their website.  The Alliance has ambitious plans for a second building adjacent to this one, too, and you can learn more about them in the first floor lobby. 

San Miguel County Commissioner Art Goodtimes was unequivocal about the dire situation faced by the Gunnison sage grouse in his recent interview with Colorado Matters on KCFR.  He reminded listeners that the Gunnison sage grouse has been declining for the last fifty years and that it now occupies only a tiny percentage of its historic range.  He stated without hesitation that the current Bureau of Land Management regulations supposed to protect the bird from oil and gas drilling are "not strong enough," and that without protection under the Endangered Species Act, "we could lose the bird."

Commissioner Goodtimes also made reference to several related problems we have been working on recently.  When asked point blank what San Miguel County wants out of their lawsuit against the Fish and Wildlife Service, he said "we want to go back to good science," a reference to the Service's ignoring the recent work of experts like Dr. Clait Braun and Dr. Jessica Young that clearly points to sage grouse declines and the need for more protection from disturbance by oil and gas drilling.  Having to ask the Service and the Bush Administration to respect the role of good science sounds depressingly familiar in the wake of the recent decision to revoke protection for Graham's penstemon and the ongoing attempts to roll back protection for the Preble's meadow jumping mouse.  Commissioner Goodtimes also said that San Miguel County wants "the Federal government to be a good partner with local governments and local landowners" in protecting habitat for the Gunnison sage grouse.  This is exactly what we hope to acheive through our work in partnership with Rocky Mountain Farmers Union and American Farmland Trust to improve the federal programs to help private landowners conserve endangered species on their land.  Our Colorado Field Coordinator, Brian Hires, has been meeting with farmers and ranchers all over the state to come up with ways to do this.  Finally, Commissioner Goodtimes even made a reference to the interference in the Gunnison sage grouse listing decision by political appointee Julie MacDonald, a story we helped to break in November last year.

Commissioner Goodtimes's interview was followed by a discussion with Colorado Division of Wildlife biologist Gary Skiba about the voluntary conservation agreements that CDOW is pursuing with private landowners in Gunnison sage grouse territory.  Gary explained what these Candidate Conservation Agreements with Assurances are and how they work, emphasizing why they can be effective in protecting habitat for the bird when done right.  In doing so, Gary noted that there is a lot of common concern for the status of the grouse because "these [landowners] don't want to see the grouse go away any more than we do."  Along the way, Gary also made several statements that emphasize the importance of Endangered Species Act protection and reinforce why our lawsuit with San Miguel County is so necessary.  Gary acknowledged that "there are some cases where it is clear that a species needs Endangered Species Act protection" and that, in the case of the Gunnison sage grouse, "there is a very real possibility of future listing" despite the Services bad decision recently.  It is always refreshing to hear state wildlife agency officials and local government officials recognizing and embracing the value and importance of the Endangered Species Act, one of our country's legacy environmental laws and one of the strongest tools we have for preventing the extinction of our most imperiled native species.  You can listen to the full Colorado Matters story on the web at the KCFR website.  Incidentally, this is the second time in recent months that Colorado Matters has addressed the issue of Gunnison sage grouse protection; our senior staff biologist Erin Robertson was recently interviewed as well.