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9:30am UPDATE: Interior Secretary Ken Salazar on Wednesday will begin a two-day trip through Colorado, Texas and New Mexico to discuss jobs and economic benefits in connection with tourism, energy, water and conservation in rural communities in the Southwest, according to a U.S. Department of the Interior news release.
Following a Wednesday morning appearance at Adams State College in Alamosa, Colo., for a San Luis Valley “conversation,” the secretary will travel to El Paso for a tour and irrigation stakeholder meeting at the Kay Bailey Hutchison Desalination Plant, the release said.
On Thursday, Salazar will appear with Sen. Jeff Bingaman, D-N.M., and BLM Director Bob Abbey and members of the Potash/Oil and Gas Steering Committee at 10:45 a.m. at the BLM Office in Carlsbad.
Later Thursday, Salazar, Bingaman, Bureau of Reclamation Commissioner Michael Connor and U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Director Dan Ashe will meet at the Rio Grande Nature Center Educational Center in Albuquerque for a meeting on conservation and water security on the Middle Rio Grande, the release said.
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ALAMOSA, Colo. (AP) — Interior Secretary Ken Salazar says he wants to help communities in the San Luis Valley conserve the area’s natural and cultural resources.
Salazar is holding a meeting on Wednesday with landowners and state officials to discuss ways to conserve healthy lands and waters and promote tourism in the San Luis Valley and the Rio Grande River corridor.
A recent report identifies American Hispanic heritage sites that reflect the history, culture, and traditions of the American southwest frontier.
The report covers more than 3 million acres located within the San Luis Valley and central Sangre de Cristo Mountains of south-central Colorado and northern New Mexico.
According to a recent article in the Pueblo (Colo.) Chieftain, the 56-page survey says the 5,100-square-mile area, once part of the Mexican frontier, takes in parts of Alamosa, Conejos, Costilla and Saguache counties in Colorado, reaches across the Sangre de Cristo Mountains to take in parts of Huerfano and Las Animas counties and extends south into two northern New Mexico counties.
It would be up to the National Park Service, with direction from Congress, to determine whether it would be feasible or suitable to bring the area into the park system and whether it would require direct management from the federal agency, the Chieftain said.
If Congress were to authorize further study, the Chieftain reported, it could look at the example found in the Blackstone River Valley National Heritage Corridor, which marks the birth of the Industrial Revolution in Massachusetts and Rhode Island or simply create a commemorative center that would include a museum, research center or cultural events.
