For the past six years, the Colorado College State of the Rockies Project has identified, analyzed and reported on issues unique and critical to the eight-state Rockies region. When the Project was launched in 2004, one impetus was a quote from Stanford's Bill Lane Center for the Study of the North American West:"The West, through Hollywood, has an enormous influence on popular culture, but otherwise it generally lacks an intellectual, cultural, or social presence within either the country or the continent."
Since 2004, the Rockies region has experienced tremendous population and economic growth. The "Rockies Baseline," reported every year in the State of the Rockies Report Card, shows that the Rockies' growth in median income and home value outpaces the nation, and job growth in the Rockies is double the national average since 2000. This regional growth demands national attention.
But demanding attention and asserting an "intellectual, cultural, or social presence" are two very different stages of growth. The Rockies has outgrown its stigma as a region unable to sustain itself, allowing the federal government to control vast tracts of land and resources with little oversight or thought to the future – often referred to as the "inland colony" of the United States.
Much has changed since 2004. Our talents and amenities slowly being realized, we are beginning to insist on a voice in our future, a transition to autonomy. Denver was chosen to host the Democratic National Convention, Ken Salazar and Janet Napolitano hold prominent positions in the cabinet, and John McCain and Bill Richardson made runs at the White House. Given a western shift in the political tide, where does that leave the region?
Perhaps stated more eloquently, that is precisely the question posed during the 2009 State of Rockies Symposium, held April 5-7 at Colorado College. Addressing the theme of "Visions of the Rockies in 50 Years: Will Our Children Thank Us?" speakers mused on the future of our region and what it will take to get there. The consensus? The Rockies region needs a united vision to protect our character, a regional plan to sustainably utilize our resources, and effective, collaborative leadership.
The topics shaping the 2009 Symposium were again focused around the material in the accompanying 2009 Report Card. This year's Report Card focused largely on wildlife, but also highlighted demographic and political phenomena in the Rockies, providing perspective to both the "urbanized Rockies" and the "wild Rockies."
The Urbanized Rockies
Though long perceived through Hollywood as cowboy-crazy, gun-slinging open territory, 83 percent of Rockies residents live in urban areas (slightly above the national average of 79 percent), and these areas remain the centers of the strongest growth in the region. Each megapolitan, or mega-region, contains at least two metropolitan areas connected by a transportation corridor, and four of the six mega-regions' populations are growing more than 2.5 percent per year.
These megapolitans were first identified in the Brookings Institution's July 2008 Report on "Mountain Megas," and the 2009 Report Card followed up with a section titled "Repopulating the Rockies." Putting the pages into practice, three experts from the Brookings Institution joined community leaders in Colorado Springs to discuss the future development of Colorado's Front Range, in addition to a presentation on the region's megapolitans during the Rockies Symposium in April.
The independent spirit of the West was evident during these sessions, as some Colorado Springs leaders and citizens disputed the fundamental reason for the megapolitan study: the necessity, benefit, and desire of Colorado Springs to be connected to Denver. Is this independence misguided or would a connected Front Range better serve both communities?
Traditional sentiment in the Rockies might say no, but surely the region (and individual cities) should at least have elected leaders who are fully committed to developing and achieving a united vision for the region, looking beyond municipal taxes and county government to examine regional issues, such as transportation networks and economic development centers.
Representational unity was examined at the federal level in a "Rockies Snapshot" of the 2009 Report Card. By analyzing senators and House representatives from the Rockies region using cooperation, bi-partisanship, and congressional power scores, the Rockies Project found that our region ranks last in the political efficacy of our representatives, and fourth of nine regions in the political efficacy of our senators.
But not all urban dwellers live in the megapolitan areas. Increasing numbers of people are moving from the cities to mid-sized, amenity rich towns the Rockies Project has termed "rural economic clusters." These economic clusters are further categorized as service, recreation, or resource extraction based.
Rural economic clusters provide a small-town feel with the modern comforts of a city, and successfully create thriving communities. Although these towns are filling with big-city transplants, they also draw business and young people away from the one-road rural towns at the heart of the West.
The demographic changes outlined in Mountain Megas and the Report Card need to be accompanied by a comprehensive vision to preserve the Rockies' historic uniqueness while moving into the future. Another "Snapshot" section in the Report Card focuses on historic preservation by county based on data from the National Register of Historic Places. This section provides a comparison of counties in the preservation of nationally recognized historic sites, but does not account for the hard work of preservation groups to attain state and local protection measures.
The Wild Rockies
Despite an ever-increasing population and expanding cities, the Rockies region has maintained its wilderness thanks to federal land protection measures and an active conservation community. We often take for granted the opportunity to hike in roadless forests, fish in secluded canyons, and ski the nation's tallest mountains. Because the federal government owns and manages 57 percent of land in the eight-state region, we assume open space will remain teeming with the wildlife that we hunt, fish, and respect.
Wildlife was central to the 2009 Report Card, just as it is central to the character of our region. The Rockies is the last remaining habitat in the United States for many species that used to cover large portions of the country. In the past 150 years, elk have lost 74 percent of their range, pronghorn 64 percent and grizzly, gray wolf, lynx and wolverines have been restricted to habitat in Canada and the northern Rockies (and in some cases northern Minnesota).
With limited habitat comes increased frequency and intensity of disease, human contact, and abnormalities in population dynamics. For many, this situation begs for human management of wildlife. Traditional hunting, culling, predator reintroduction, and contraception are only a few ways managers are addressing the ever-evolving issues of wildlife (not to mention tight agency budgets).
Studying wildlife issues also provides an avenue for us to identify broader human impacts on the environment. When fish populations decline we study our rivers, and we study the impact of our roads when migratory animals change their seasonal routes. Recently, university and state wildlife researchers have been documenting and projecting the impacts of energy development on wildlife.
Large drilling rigs, new roads, and heavy truck traffic endanger and distress wildlife, especially during seasonal mating and migration. Pinedale, Wyoming lies in the epicenter of this battle. Home to the second largest natural gas field in the country, the town also sits in a major migration corridor for mule deer, which have already experienced a 46 percent decline in population. Additionally, greater sage-grouse, a species extirpated in most of the West, finds their best remaining vestige of habitat on the Pinedale Anticline.
As human impacts on wildlife and the environment are recognized (or anticipated), conservation groups and concerned citizens take action. In the 2009 Report Card, the Wild and Scenic Rivers Act was studied in depth. This Act provides federal protection to free-flowing rivers, and coincidentally protects the wildlife reliant on the river.
George Cooper, president of the Theodore Roosevelt Conservation Partnership and a keynote speaker at the Rockies Symposium, stressed the importance of long-range conservation and the demonstrated successes of bi-partisanship in these efforts. Conservatives, moderates, and liberals all have a stake in the continued health of our wild places for their personal recreational interests, the continued health of our ecosystems, and the integrity of the West's refuge of Wilderness. For a region comprised of a 17 Republican – 11 Democrat split in the House, an 11 Republican – 5 Democrat split in the Senate, and an even split among state governors, perhaps conservation is one issue we agree on in Washington and at home.
As we look to our future, and to the future of our children, what sort of Rockies do we see? Something to be proud of, something we planned for? Or something bearing the scars of negligence, ignorance and haste? Sally Jewell, President and CEO of REI, Inc., implored the audience at the Rockies Symposium to teach children to respect the outdoors and to enjoy the opportunities for spontaneity and imagination it provides. It is our hope that we can work together to preserve this wildness, develop our cities sustainably, and ensure the distinctly Western character that links them together for generations to come.
Elizabeth Kolbe (Colorado College '08) is the researcher and author of the Renewable Energy section of the 2008 State of the Rockies Report Card and the 2009 Rockies Program Coordinator.
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