HR: 0830h
AN: H41E-1046    [PDF]
TI: Telluride, Tom Cruise, and Land Use Codes: Science, Policy, and Community Response
AU: * Raby, K S
EM: rabyk@colorado.edu
AF: Institute of Arctic and Alpine Research, 1560 30th Street, Campus Box 450, Boulder, CO 80309
AU: * Raby, K S
EM: rabyk@colorado.edu
AF: Department of Environmental Studies, University of Colorado at Boulder, Boulder, CO 80309
AU: Williams, M W
EM: markw@snobear.colorado.edu
AF: Institute of Arctic and Alpine Research, 1560 30th Street, Campus Box 450, Boulder, CO 80309
AU: Williams, M W
EM: markw@snobear.colorado.edu
AF: Department of Geography, University of Colorado at Boulder, Boulder, CO 80309
AB: Mountain areas throughout the western US have experienced a surge in popularity in the last decade, resulting in degradation of the resources that drew people to the area in the first place. Traditional economic interests, recreational users, and environmentalists all have opposing priorities. Thus, resource managers and planners face increasingly critical and controversial decisions regarding development and protection of watersheds. Best Management Practices (BMPs) are generally an attempt to improve land and water quality after degradation. Here we report on our work with local stakeholders in the San Miguel River drainage-home of Telluride Ski Area and Hollywood moguls such as Tom Cruise-to prevent degradation of headwater catchments while providing for reasonable economic and recreational activities. We developed new tools for resource managers by mapping landscape types and associated water quality parameters so as to develop sensitivity criteria that are displayed visually using GIS maps. Using these results, San Miguel County Commissioners adopted land use codes to restrict development, including an 800-sqft building footprint, and bans on septic systems and winter plowing. This case study lays the foundation for science-based policy at the catchment scale, but is dependent on local culture and politics. Preliminary fieldwork was conducted in the summer of 2003 as the first steps toward similar work in adjacent San Juan County, which has a strong mining heritage. The San Juan County Planning Commission identified priority basins for study, and extensive physical field surveys were conducted in these drainages to map spatial distribution and aerial extent of numerous landscape types. Again, water quality parameters will be associated with different land covers to enable alpine sensitivity analysis at the landscape unit scale. Results will be provided to the San Juan Planning Commission to augment current planning tools. However, because of the different political and cultural climates of the two counties, we show that policy outcomes that ensue in San Juan County will likely differ from those achieved in San Miguel County.
DE: 1871 Surface water quality
SC: Hydrology [H]
MN: 2003 Fall Meeting