The Hermosa Creek watershed is an expanse north of Durango that covers roughly 108 thousand acres.
Several years ago, a lot of people and organizations that had a vested interest in the area got together to try to figure out a way to protect this area. One of those interested parties is Trout Unlimited. KVNF's Jake Ryan talked with Ty Churchwell who’s based out of Durango.
"It's treasured by mountain bikers, backpackers, hunters, anglers, campers, photographers, hikers, you name it. It's an incredibly special place," says Ty.
"The people who participated [in protection efforts] represented arguably every single user group in the Hermosa Creek area. I don't just mean recreation folks. Grazers, outfitters, water development folks, the tribe, county commissioners, and the city council was represented. It was very comprehensive," says Ty.
It is in part because of this lengthy, comprehensive process that Trout Unlimited and others are a little worried. The collaborative workgroup had been a resounding success and had bipartisan support. Senator Bennet and Representative Tipton both submitted identical bills, and things were looking good. Last week, in a committee hearing that was reviewing the bill, another congressman raised issue with a part of Tipton’s bill. Tipton rewrote some things, and the bill made it out of comittee. Keith Curley is the Director for Government affairs for Trout Unlimited. He's not sure exactly what the changes to the bill will mean for Hermosa Creek.
"That's the million dollar question," says Keith, "all the stake holders right now are pouring over the new bill languane and trying to figure that out. It's difficult sometimes to look at legeslative text when it changes, and decipher exactly what that would mean on the ground," says Keith.
Right now, everyone’s still trying to figure out what will happen to Hermosa Creek.