A Road Runs Through It?

The National Wildlife Refuge Association (NWRA) needs your help to prevent the construction of 50 miles of roads through the 13,000-acre Browns Park National Wildlife Refuge (NWR) in Colorado. This decision has implications for the development of roads on National Wildlife Refuges across the country! Your emails, calls, letters and faxes to Bill Owens, governor of Colorado, could stop a local judgment from being used as a precedent to build harmful roads through refuge lands! Detailed background and contact information is provided below.

Background

Browns Park NWR is located in Moffat County, Colorado. On January 10, 2003, the Moffat County Board of County Commissioners approved a resolution which purports to "exercise [the Commissioners"] right to assert Moffat County highway rights-of-way on federal lands within Moffat County under R.S. 2477. The map accompanying the resolution shows the County claiming over 2,000 miles of routes in northwest Colorado - more than enough to drive from Denver to Boston. These claims include 240 miles of highway rights-of-way cutting through Dinosaur National Monument, 53 miles within the Browns Park National Wildlife Refuge, and miles within every Wilderness Study Area (WSA), citizen-proposed wilderness, and Forest Service road-less area in the county. Impacts to America's special places could be devastating!

R.S. 2477, a Civil War era law, states: "The right-of-way for the construction of highways over public land, not reserved for public uses, is hereby granted." The law was repealed by Congress in 1976, but where local governments can show that a "highway" was "constructed" prior to 1976, or prior to the land being reserved for public uses (such as national parks, forests, monuments, or wildlife refuges) - whichever is earlier - local governments can allege that they have a right-of-way and therefore the "road" can be developed as a public highway.

Browns Park NWR is one of our nation's premier waterfowl and upland bird production areas. It supplies more than 220 aviary species with over 13,000 acres of undisturbed breeding habitat. Nearly 1,500 acres of wetlands provide excellent breeding habitat for teal, widgeon, gadwall, mallards, other ducks and Canada geese. It is estimated that nearly 2,500 ducklings and 300 goslings hatch annually in the refuge. The refuge's shrub lands provide vital habitat for several species of concern - namely, the loggerhead shrike, sage grouse, sage sparrow, sage thrasher, and Brewers sparrow. The Green River that runs through the heart of the refuge provides excellent habitat for wintering bald eagles, nesting osprey, endangered river otters, beaver, and the endangered Colorado pikeminnow.

What you can do:

We urge you to email, fax or call Colorado Governor Bill Owens to state your disapproval of this proposal and the danger it poses to valuable and irreplaceable habitat protected by national wildlife refuges like Browns Park. Please copy your U.S. Senator and Representatives when contacting Governor Owens.

In your communications, please include these 4 points:

• You are opposed to the R.S. 2477 decision in Moffat County, Colorado, allowing for the construction of roads in the Browns Park National Wildlife Refuge.

• The Browns Park NWR is a natural resource treasure, which supplies critical habitat for more than 220 aviary species (including Golden and Bald eagles, Sandhill cranes and Sage Grouse). The Refuge has over 13,000 acres of undisturbed breeding habitat, and over 20,000 waterbirds that utilize the Refuge in the spring and fall months.

• As a supporter of the National Wildlife Refuge System, you want Governor Owens to reject Moffat County's R.S. 2477 claims because you believe they would have a detrimental effect on the natural resource conservation of refuge lands and habitats across America.

• You support federal legislation addressing R.S. 2477 that involves: comprehensive opportunities for public input; established deadlines for asserting claims of R.S. 2477 "constructed highways;" heightened protection for National Wildlife Refuges and other special places; and standards ensuring only "highways" that were truly "constructed" be recognized, per federal case law.

Send emails to: governorowens@state.co.us

Call the Governor's office at: 303-866-2471

Address your letters to:
The Honorable Bill Owens
Governor
State of Colorado
136 State Capitol
Denver, CO 80203-1792

Send faxes to: 303-866-2003

Contact information for your House and Senate Members can be located at the following Web address:http://www.visi.com/juan/congress/

Thank you for taking action on behalf of the Refuge System. Please feel free to contact Michael Woodbridge, Assistant Director of Government Affairs, at 202-333-9075 or mwoodbridge@refugenet.org.