Urgent Need for Participation in Protecting Sacred Places with Water

Concerned Citizens Urged to Participate in Public Meetings and Workshops

Colorado is home to a priceless treasure of waterways, wetlands, snowpacks, and watersheds. 

Colorado is a high desert plagued with droughts, wind and dust storms, and extreme erosion. 

Both of these statements are true as well as the range of truths between and around them. So, the process of preserving and protecting our waters is complex. It got more challenging last year when the U.S. Supreme Court shot down two major provisions of the Clean Water Act. 

The first provides for protection of streams that are ephemeral, existing only during the snowmelt season, for example. Streams and wetlands that dry up periodically could be dredged and filled in to construct homes, roads, or other operations. Wildlife, native plants, habitats, graves, and places sacred to Native American peoples could be destroyed. 

The second provision to be removed by the Supreme Court covers streams connected to a water source that flows underground. They would lose protection. We know that many sacred sites are on or close to underground streams. They could be disrupted, paved over, destroyed. 

More information is included in a story published on August 30 by Colorado Sun reporter Jerd Smith. It is now up to the State of Colorado to write new laws governing these threatened waters.

Public participation is invited, beginning with a virtual meeting on Wednesday, September 4, from 9:30 - 11:30 am on Zoom. Learn how to register here. We could also, as a group, prepare a statement about this effort. Comment on this blog with your ideas. Thank you! 


North of Durango, these wetlands are home to much wildlife and the endangered Yellow Lady's Slipper Orchid (Cypripedium parviflorum). These are also the ancestral lands of the Ute Indians. 


The North American Rock Garden Society sponsored visits to threatened wetlands in 2021. 







This is an informational blog about Sacred Places. Welcome and enjoy. I intend to make this place accessible to all who want to preserve and learn about Native American sacred places and trees. In the meantime, you can participate by commenting, sending your contributions to me, and linking to this site. There is much more to come. 

 

Comments

  1. LeeDecember 4, 2025 at 9:37 AM

    This legislation has been drafted after over a year of work and will be voted on on December 8. But the devil is in the details. https://coloradosun.com/2025/12/04/colorado-wetlands-streams-draft-rules-hearing/?member=true&tier=Basic%20Plus&utm_source=ActiveCampaign&utm_medium=email&utm_content=Colorado%20high-country%20critter%20is%20feeling%20the%20heat&utm_campaign=The%20Sunriser%20-%2012%2F3%2F25%20%28Copy%29

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. LeeDecember 12, 2025 at 9:38 AM

      Congratulations to the Colorado Water Quality Control Division (WQCD) and to all who participated in this first-of-a-kind legislation to protect and deliver Clean Water for Colorado and the nation! https://coloradosun.com/2025/12/12/colorado-water-regulators-approve-historic-stream-wetlands-protections/?member=&tier=&utm_source=ActiveCampaign&utm_medium=email&utm_content=Colorado%20headlines%20for%20%20TODAY&utm_campaign=The%20Headlines%20-%20Daily%20%28Recurring%29%20%28Copy%29?member=true&tier=Basic%20Plus&utm_source=ActiveCampaign&utm_medium=email&utm_content=What%20Trump%20s%20%22pardon%22%20of%20Tina%20Peters%20actually%20means&utm_campaign=The%20Sunriser%20-%2012%2F12%2F25

      Delete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Can Colorado Trump-proof its Precious Waters? We Can Try.

Image
  Barely noticed in the flurry of executive orders during the new Administration last week was the pronouncement of an "Energy Emergency" allowing oil and gas developers to proceed to drill and bulldoze without worrying about pesky environmental concerns.This includes development on fragile wetlands, around rivers and streams, and on banks and beaches. The damage that could be caused would be permanent and far-reaching, not only to water quality and stream flow, but also to plant and wildlife, habitat, historical and sacred sites, and future viability.  Colorado is well familiar with the harm that extractive industries can cause. With its history of mining, the state has been dealing with polluted waters from mine runoff for over a century. Such metals as gold, silver, copper, molybdenum, lead, and uranium have been mined in the mountainous regions of the state. Often, chemicals were used to extract the metal from the ore, compounding the toxicity. Many waterways have never r...
Read more

Reactions to the Hurried New Regs on Old Growth Forests

Image
New NFS Landscape Plan Guidance Threatens Modified Trees in Old Growth Forests The first I heard about new Old-growth forest regulation changes was on September 18th when I read an op-ed by Dr. Peter Brown in the Colorado Sun . He cautioned that the oldest trees in these forests may not look very old and may have a smaller circumference than many younger trees.  He should know. Dr. Brown is a dendrochronologist, a scientist who can date trees by analyzing their growth rings. He has found that circumference doesn't necessarily equate to age and is concerned that if smaller trees are removed from the landscape haphazardly, old growth trees may disappear.  This is already happening. In the foothills above Boulder, Colorado, I visited a landowner's newly acquired property adjacent to her home. She purchased the 13-acre plot to keep it from being developed into a large residence or ranch. All over her original land as well as the new property, trees were marked for removal with blu...
Read more

Public Lands in Danger Throughout the United States

Image
Breaking News:  Lease Auctions Start for BLM Lands in Colorado Quick on the heels of the "One Big Beautiful Bill" and Secy. of the Interior Burgum's order to increase leasing and sales of public land (see comments), an auction was held on September 9 to turn over nearly 8,000 acres of public land to developers. The largest of these parcels was on a landfill and Superfund site near Aurora Reservoir, slated for about 150 wells to be installed by the Civitas oil and gas giant.  The federal Bureau of Land Management (BLM) oversees about 36 million acres in Colorado alone.  Another, larger auction is set for December 2025.    Published December 2024 Five Hundred Million Acres of Public Lands at Risk  Last month we were alerted to the dangers to old-growth forests from logging interests eyeing our national forests. That danger has grown with a hiring freeze at the National Forest Service and DOGE cuts sure to come. The U.S. Department of Agriculture oversees our ...
Read more