On Monday, April 21, a near-capacity crowd gathered at the Third Street Center for a panel discussion titled, “How Environmental Policies in D.C. and Denver are Affecting the Roaring Fork Valley.” The event was sponsored by Wilderness Workshop (WW) and Mtn Bio, a community-based, climate-centered educational nonprofit; both are Carbondale-based.
Beth Shoemaker, founder of Mtn Bio, introduced the panelists: Chelsea Congdon, cofounder of Kinship and the evening’s moderator; Patrick King, senior director of strategic partnerships at Boulder-based Protect Our Winters (POW); Natasha Léger, executive director of Citizens for a Healthy Community (CHC) in Paonia; and Will Roush, WW executive director.
Congdon invited each to discuss their organization. Léger said that through the efforts of CHC and its partners, “Not a single acre of public lands [in the region] has been leased to oil and gas since 2013,” though noting that the “current state of things [at the federal level] is unsettling, to say the least.”
Roush described WW’s work to protect public lands across the Western Slope, saying, “What we’ve found to be effective and successful in the past is bringing together communities and people who care passionately about public lands and places.” Describing the wide range of groups WW works with, he said that when they can bring those groups together, “We’re able to protect our public lands, or maybe more apt right now, defend them.”
King said POW’s focus is on “public lands protection [and] clean energy development,” and that the organization’s “superpower” are their alliances with some 300 “athletes, scientists and creatives and a hundred brand partners who help us get calls for climate action out to hundreds of millions of people.”
Congdon asked about the threats coming from Washington or the state level “that really feel formed and urgent,” and also the “opportunities you see responding to those.”
Léger was most concerned with public lands opening to “unfettered oil and gas development,” particularly the upper North Fork Valley of the Gunnison River, which is designated “high-developmental potential.” Noting that protecting public lands there was always “a hard-fought battle,” she said “now it’s even more dire” with the way the administration has gone after a host of environmental and public-land issues, especially “try[ing] to remove the public from its ability to have a voice in the projects within their communities.”
She voiced concern about state efforts to “chip away at protecting disproportionately impacted communities” by defining census blocks as the people within them, rather than the much vaster uninhabited geographic area of each block. She said that CHC was trying to get “denial criteria” into existing oil and gas regulations. One of those criteria could be what CHC calls “local warming” (rather than calling it “climate change”), noting that the Western Slope is warming faster than other areas. She urged people, “Give your federal land managers some love, because they are the first line of defense at this point.”
Roush noted, “There’s a lot of good, proactive work that we need to keep doing.” For example, “continuing our work to protect the Crystal River with Wild and Scenic [designation].” He emphasized the importance of designating wilderness areas as well. “That’s the last place conservation is going to be undone.”
Roush acknowledged recent executive decisions and Congressional legislation saying, “Some of that’s just going to be bluster.” He continued, “Economics will stop some bad projects from happening.” He reiterated Léger’s mention of the administration’s “real effort to keep the public out of decision-making and prevent the public from being informed about what’s happening.”
He brought up the administration’s effort to sell off hundreds of thousands of acres of public lands, saying, “That’s probably the biggest threat that my organization can think of.” Finally, Roush touched on the “indiscriminate layoffs and staff cutting at our federal land-management agencies,” adding, “That’s just a travesty in and of itself.”
King discussed the importance of 2022’s Inflation Reduction Act (IRA), “the biggest investment in climate history,” and that the IRA provisions are “under serious threat” by the current administration, also noting that 14 Republican representatives support the IRA, and “a lot of IRA dollars went to those states.”
He shared his concern that what is under threat is “our will to support climate action,” continuing, “The dizzying pace and direction of all the chaos is not unintentional; it’s very directional.” He added, “We’re just trying to keep people engaged.”
King brought up the POW concept of the “outdoor state” — meaning any kind of outdoor activity — citing that 175 million people participate nationwide. Rallying them, he said, “could be the most important voting bloc in the country.” He saw their best opportunity as “flexing both those muscles: our size and our economic output.”
Congdon circled back to the “effort to keep the public away from the conversations that belong to them.” She wondered how to keep the public engaged. She also mentioned connections, noting the connectivity of biodiversity and climate, and asked, “How [do] we resist keeping the public out?”
Léger responded, “To stay engaged, be engaged at all the levels,” and the “really important role” of local governments … with their current authority.” She mentioned the “inspiration” of Our Children’s Trust, of Eugene, Oregon, that recently won a lawsuit in Colorado against fracking. She also encouraged people to “get out onto public lands” and suggested joining community groups. “The more we can come together and feel like we’re not alone is really the important piece.”
Roush focused on silencing public participation: “That’s a goal of this administration.” Noting the actions organizations like WW, POW and CHC are taking, he encouraged people to “stay informed, join those organizations, so that you can be part of that advocacy.”
He strongly encouraged people to write letters, show up at public meetings and rallies and contact government and nongovernment individuals, adding, “In some ways, those less formal means are even more important.” Mentioning the large number of people participating in public rallies and events this year, he said, “You’re in good company of people who are speaking out and trying to make their voice heard.”
King, echoing his fellow panelists, said, “Getting into the work is super important.” He talked about the “love for the outdoors and outdoor places” as “something that can’t be broken or exhausted,” and exhorted folks to “Keep … doing the hard work when it gets hard.”
The floor was opened to audience questions. One was: “Are the administration’s policies toward opening up public lands consistent with what the extractive industry wants?”
Roush answered, “A lot of them are,” notably “less regulations and laws around pollution or environmental standards.” But he also said that industry doesn’t like it when regulations “get turned on and then turned off and turn back on again,” concluding, “A lot of what the administration is doing has not been at the top of the industry’s list.”
He also noted, however, the issue of renewed leasing for mineral exploitation. Although there may not be active drilling on that land, leases take it out of consideration for other uses, like conservation, for many years. He also mentioned prioritizing “what cannot be undone,” like a timber sale in old-growth forest.
Roush said that, so far, “there’s been no direct threat” to the 20-year Thompson Divide administrative withdrawal. However, when asked if he thinks the administration may be “prepping to do bad things” (like rescind the withdrawal), Roush replied, “Definitely yes.”
Another question focused on the actions of attorneys general in several blue states pushing back on some of the administration’s policies and what can be done at the state level.
Léger described how Colorado Attorney General Phil Weiser “strongly defended” the state’s climate policies against an executive order claiming that states were “overreaching” on them. King brought up the dramatic increase nationwide in local rules and laws to prevent clean-energy development, encouraging people to counter “organized and vocal opposition” to that development.
Another person asked if maybe the emphasis should shift away from climate change and more toward understanding and protecting the regulatory state on climate policy.
King responded by citing POW’s approach — what he called a “kernel.” Rather than discussing a scientific report with someone skeptical of climate change, one might mention “a pond hockey tournament in Vermont that’s been held for 50 years in a row hasn’t happened in the last three years,” to spark a discussion.
Léger reiterated CHC’s use of “local warming” instead of climate change, “Because everyone recognizes that it is getting hotter and drier” on the Western Slope. She continued, “People seem to be resonating with that as the change piece,” and noted that climate-change deniers “all agree that their local climate is changing,” though they don’t agree it is human-caused.
Roush concluded the evening by saying, “Your voice does matter. … Vote with your feet, vote with your wallet and your words; and in 18 months and in 2028, vote for real. Pace yourself; this is a marathon, not a sprint. Stay educated, and then get outside and enjoy the out of doors. Enlist your friends and family, and connect with people like Beth [Shoemaker], who are just grabbing this, taking initiative on their own, and making change happen. And that’s how we make a difference and win this.”
There was a second discussion in Aspen at Explore Books on April 22, sponsored by WW and the Environmental Policy and Research Center. Steven Arauza replaced Léger; other panelists were the same.