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Environmental Laws and Regulations in Telluride, Colorado, May 1, 2001
Melissa Powers, a third-year law student at Lewis and Clark College's Northwestern School of Law in Portland, Oregon, recently completed An Overview of Environmental Laws Governing Wetlands Development in Telluride, Colorado. This 30-page report is a comprehensive analysis of the legal and regulatory framework governing the development of wetlands in Telluride, Colorado. Its purpose is to help the citizens of Telluride make informed land use decisions for the Valley Floor.

Setting a Course for Informed Community Decision Making, April 16, 2001
Every day across the United States, communities large and small are faced with a host of land use decisions. Some decisions are straightforward. But many are not. The more complex the science, the more complex the decision. The more an issue affects different community members, the more controversial it is. What does "success" look like for these communities?
    For the Telluride community, SEI believes that three elements are essential to help it determine its options. Two of the elements concern content and the third, process: First, to make an informed decision about how to move forward, the community needs to understand the San Miguel ecosystem from its headwaters to the valley floor. Does the ecosystem, for example, contain valuable ecological services or attributes that could be jeopardized by development? Or could thoughtful development occur in portions of the valley floor that would have little or no measurable impact on the ecosystem? Second, the community needs to understand the regulatory framework that can either support or limit the community's interests. What local, state, or federal laws and regulations need to be taken into consideration when weighing the community's various land use interests? And third, how can SEI make sure the entire community has access to the necessary scientific and legal information to help it make an informed decision? A community with access to information, and to a range of options, develops a wiser sense of what is going on and what needs to be done.
    To these ends, SEI has recently arranged for two independent contractors to provide the scientific and regulatory content underlying the issue, and has hired a full-time project manager to help interpret that information to the broader Telluride community. In March, SEI hired Wendy Hudson, a communications specialist who has more than 12 years' experience with environmental communications. She comes to us with both federal government and private non-profit experience, having formerly worked for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, and more recently for the national non-profit, Defenders of Wildlife. Wendy is excited about SEI's collaborative philosophy, and has demonstrated through her work at Defenders a commitment to community-based decision-making.
    Those of you who attended the February Science Forum at the Opera House may remember Aaron Ellingson who spoke so eloquently of the geologic history of the area. Aaron is a doctoral candidate in the Department of Fishery and Wildlife Biology at Colorado State University. SEI has contracted Aaron to conduct a literature review of the science that has been conducted in the study area over the last 10 years, and to synthesize that information into a readable report. We expect the information to provide a factual, objective window through which the Telluride community can look to gain greater clarity about the area's ecology and to profit from that clarity when making future land use decisions. We also expect Aaron's research to help shape the direction of the scientific field work SEI plans to conduct in and around the Telluride community this summer.
    On the regulatory front, we are pleased to announce that we have contracted Melissa Powers, a third-year environmental law student at the Lewis and Clark Northwestern School of Law in Portland, Oregon. Melissa will be researching Colorado local and state law, as well as federal laws and regulations. In particular, she will be looking at local and state land use and development laws and regulations, and at state and federal laws and regulations concerning wetlands, clean water, and endangered species. Like Aaron's scientific report, Melissa's report is expected to set forth the legal and regulatory framework the Telluride community will need to consider when weighing future land use decisions.
    Over the coming months, Wendy will be managing SEI's outreach to the Telluride community and will work closely on the project with SEI president, Dr. Deborah Brosnan. Both Aaron's and Melissa's reports will be available in early May, with the principal results and considerations posted on the SEI website soon thereafter. ...collapse

SMHVF Science Forum, Telluride Opera House, February 19, 2001
Over Presidents Weekend, SEI hosted a highly successful public science forum to introduce the SMHVF project to the Telluride community. Speaking to a packed audience, experts from around the nation discussed the scientific issues relating to conservation in the San Juan Mountains and the San Miguel basin and answered questions from the public. The speakers included Aaron Ellingson (Colorado State University), Dr. Carol Boggs (Stanford University and SEI), Dr. Barry Noon (Colorado State and SEI), Dr. Scott Wissinger (Allegheny College), and SEI President Dr. Deborah Brosnan, who introduced the forum by describing the SMHVF program. The presentations covered a range of topics, from the importance of San Juan mountain biodiversity and ecosystem services to wetlands ecology to the interplay between ecology and human land use boundaries. Dr. Robert Roughley (University of Manitoba) also presented findings from SEI's fall invertebrate surveys in the Telluride area.