Hi Cobirders -
The deadline for comments on the Draft Environmental Impact Statement for the Chatfield Reallocation Project is coming up on Sept. 6. The project, if carried out, would eliminate some
of the richest bird habitat in the State, the riparian forests and wetlands along 0.7 miles of the So. Platte RIver just above Chatfield Reservoir, and even more of the same along Plum Creek. Deer Creek would also be affected. The project depends heavily on mitigation, and the mitigation depends on very vague "adaptive management" measures.
One supposed benefit that has been used to "sell" this project was improved flows in the Platte downstream of Chatfield dam. The DEIS makes clear this won't happen.
For more information, I recommend visiting www.SaveChatfield.org for the Audubon point of view and www.chatfieldstudy.org for the Corps of Engineers point of view. Both sites have links to the DEIS and can tell you which libraries have hard copies. Comments by both Hugh Kingery and Joey Kellner are on the SaveChatfield website.
You don't have to be an expert to comment! If you bird a lot at Chatfield and want the riparian habitat preserved, you can write a letter to say just that. There are alternatives that received very little consideration in the DEIS, like more intensive water conservation measures, storage in Reuter-Hess Reservoir, use of gravel pits, underground storage in Denver Basin aquifers. The Corps should be encouraged to pursue them.
Send a copy of your letter to Gov. John Hickenlooper (136 State Capitol, 200 E. Colfax Ave., Denver 80203), to your Congressional Representative, and to your Senators. It's important to speak out if you want to save the irreplaceable birding habitat that will be destroyed at Chatfield.
Polly Reetz
Denver, Colorado
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