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CHICO BASIN CONSERVATION LEADERSHIP INITIATIVE
Impact/Purpose:
The Chico Basin, as defined by The Nature Conservancy, encompasses the intact portion of the lower Chico and Black Squirrel Creeks watershed and is one of the 15 most imperiled and significant landscapes in Colorado. It is located in eastern El Paso and Pueblo Counties, encompassing almost 500,000 acres of shortgrass prairie, native fish assemblages, sandsage prairie, prairie seeps and wetlands, playa lakes, and riparian systems. Other species of interest in the Chico Basin are black-tailed prairie dog and mountain plover (both candidate species under the Endangered Species Act). The Chico Basin is changing quickly and dramatically. These environmental stresses also put pressure on the local ranching economy. Without viable ranching operations in the Chico Basin, its exceptional biological qualities and agricultural values will be lost.
The Chico Basin Leadership Initiative will involve a series of three stakeholder workshops and associated cultivation, information gathering and technical assistance activities designed to engage key landowners and political leaders in developing specific action steps that address the key threats of fragmentation, groundwater depletion and noxious weeds threatening riparian corridors and wetlands in the Chico Basin watershed.
Description:
The workshops will occur between May 2002 and January 2003, (though timing is flexible depending on funding). Between workshops The Nature Conservancy will respond to information requests and generate the technical materials necessary to inform the sessions. The goals of the Chico Basin Leadership Initiative are :1) To slow fragmentation of the Chico Basin, address groundwater depletion, riparian health and noxious weeds through engaging and empowering local leadership. 2) To identify and engage local leadership in conservation issues in the Basin. 3) To facilitate the leadership to define the pressing environmental problems they want to address. 4) To establish common ground among the stakeholders. 5) Definitively map out the stakeholders' most pressing environmental problems. 6) To create a project plan complete with: Action plan and Stakeholders Responsible for Implementation, Workshop Analyses, Map of Critical Conservation Areas, Identification of Key Threats, Capacity and Feasibility Plan. 7) To generate an ongoing commitment on the part of the stakeholders to implement the project. 8) To produce and disseminate final project plan to participants and other applicable stakeholders.