As the president of the Rio Grande Water Conservation
District, I have many responsibilities to attempt to prevent the
types of water wars that ultimately tear communities apart. The
fact is that in a small community like our San Luis Valley, nothing
is possible if we are unable to present a united front in the face
of challenges.
I do sense a change in your
publication’s focus towards the politics and policy of the
federal government. I believe I sense a hardening in your attitudes
toward those of us who have for generations taken a living from the
Western landscape. For those of us who live in the landscapes which
you are trying to protect, I believe this is a disservice, for only
through the promotion of community-building will a sensible
evolution of Western land use be possible.
Those of us
who have been here for generations bear a huge burden for not
extending a welcoming hand to those who have recently arrived from
other climes; we should have welcomed them as neighbors and made
use of their talents in building stronger communities. Instead,
newcomers are frequently shunned. We should have helped them
understand the laws, customs and traditions of our uses of the land
and the water. Instead, we ignored and often abused their fresh new
ideas.
If you had told the original members of the RGWCD
that we would be negotiating reserved water rights settlements with
the Forest Service or sponsoring a bill to protect the Rio Grande
Corridor, they would be appalled, but that is exactly what is being
done. It is being done with consensus, with a community not yet
totally fragmented by an “us against them” mentality.
If
it is results which your board desires, I hope that they will not
abandon the support of community-based consensus.
Ray Wright
Monte Vista, Colorado
This article appeared in the print edition of the magazine with the headline Consensus nets results.
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