WESTERN SKIES - October 27, 2005
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STEPHEN RAHER: For Western Skies, I'm Stephen Raher.
Five local environmental groups have appealed the Forest Service's decision to once again allow cars on a segment of Gold Camp Road close to Colorado Springs' Westside neighborhood.
Among those filing the appeal are the Trails and Open Space Coalition and the Pikes Peak Sierra Club. They say the Forest Service decision to re-open an eight and a half mile segment to cars underestimates adverse environmental impacts.
The Forest Service announced the plan to re-open the road segment in July, after conducting an environmental impact study. The section was closed to cars in 1988, when a historic railroad tunnel on the road partially collapsed.
The Forest Service plan announced in July proposes to open the portion of the road to one-way traffic, and turn operations over to a contractor. But this particular part of the road has become popular with hikers and bicyclists, many of whom say the road should remain closed. The appeal points out that over eighty percent of Gold Camp Road remains open to use by cars. A regional Forest Service official in Golden will review the appeal.
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RAHER: Colorado's Senators said this week that the United States should retaliate against Japan if it doesn't lift its ban on U.S. cattle imports.
The two-year-old beef between the two usually amicable trading partners started in reaction to the United States' first confirmed case of mad cow disease in 2003. Japan (along with many other countries) banned U.S. beef imports. Since then, only one other case of the disease has been reported in this country and new safeguards, including restrictions on cattle imports from Canada, have helped to reassure world markets.
But Japan, which had been the most lucrative foreign market for U.S. beef, has not lifted its embargo, much to the ire of lawmakers from beef-producing states.
Colorado's senior Senator, Wayne Allard.
SEN. WAYNE ALLARD: Right now, Colorado's beef industry has lost more than three hundred and forty million dollars in exports from the Japanese embargo.
RAHER: Allard expressed disappointment with the Japanese government's slow response to American requests for them to lift the ban. Democratic Senator Ken Salazar echoed Allard's frustration.
SEN. KEN SALAZAR: We have had numerous meetings and conversations with the Japanese government. I have met with the Japanese ambassador. They have promised that they were working through this process where they were about ready to open up their borders. And yet, nothing has happened. The border of Japan remains closed to American beef.
RAHER: Salazar and Allard are among twenty-one senators who are co-sponsoring legislation to authorize trade sanctions against Japan if the beef embargo is not lifted by the end of December. What exact form these sanctions would take isn't yet clear, but Salazar said if negotiations with Japan fail, U.S. retaliatory tariffs should be swift.
SALAZAR: We have asked the U.S. Trade Representative to identify the tariffs that would be imposed on Japanese products that are imported into the United States. We currently import everything from batteries to watches to a whole host of other things.
RAHER: Allard, usually a strong supporter of free trade, said he signed onto the bill reluctantly, but he reiterated that he does not find the public health rationale given by the Japanese government to be reasonable. On a conference call with Colorado media outlets, Allard was quick to defend his overall free trade agenda in response to one comment by a reporter from La Plata County.
REPORTER: I say just stop importing their cars, by golly. Stop outsourcing our work, keep it here. Don't send our work to Japan. Anyway...
ALLARD: Yeah, well, generally free trade works very well for us. It really works well for Colorado. And the NAFTA agreements, the General Agreement on Trade and Tariffs, have had a very positive impact on our economy. So I don't like to get into anything that suggests a trade war, but we do have those options available.
RAHER: At a press conference earlier in the week, U.S. Trade Representative Rob Portman expressed hope that the embargo will be lifted before the end of the year.
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RAHER: An organization working to increase affordable housing in Colorado released a new report this week. Molly Adams has more.
MOLLY ADAMS: Housing Colorado, a nonprofit organization, has just published a new fact book, which they released at their annual conference last week in Breckenridge.
The fact book details housing challenges facing the state and updates on the housing market. Jamie Balliet with Housing Colorado says the news for families looking for a home is discouraging.
JAMIE BALLIET: Someone has to earn three minimum wages to be able to afford the average rental apartment across the state. An alarming trend that's been continuing as the wage that's needed climbs higher as well as the actual rent cost itself climbs higher.
ADAMS: Based on statewide figures, Housing Colorado estimates you need an annual income of thirty-one thousand dollars to afford a one- or two-bedroom apartment, assuming that no more than a third of your income would go towards rent.
Even in Pueblo, one of Colorado's most affordable metropolitan areas, you would need an annual income of over thirty-six thousand dollars. An average store cashier earns less than half of that amount. In fact, of the seven fastest growing occupations, six earn less than thirty thousand dollars, according to Housing Colorado.
Housing Colorado says the state ranks forty-first in the nation in terms of rental affordability. For more information on affordable housing in your area, visit HousingColorado.org.
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RAHER: And finally, the Colorado Trail Foundation has a new chief executive. Molly Adams reports.
ADAMS: Bill Manning is the first ever Managing Director of the Denver-based Colorado Trail Foundation. He has been a member of the nonprofit foundation for five years. CTF works with the U.S. Forest Service to maintain the trail, which stretches over five hundred miles between Denver and Durango. Bill Manning.
BILL MANNING: It is absolutely the essence of what Colorado is. The biggest goal for the Colorado Trail will try to change one hundred miles of the trail from being motorized to being non-motorized. And that's a lofty goal, but that would be one of the biggest things we work on over the next years.
ADAMS: The idea for the easy access, multi-use trail was conceived in 1973 by the Forest Service. After budget cuts in 1986 would have delayed construction, the Colorado Trail Foundation was established by Gudy Gaskill. The foundation organizes volunteers to do the majority of trail maintenance. In 2001, volunteers donated three hundred fifty thousand dollars worth of labor. The trail passes through eight mountain ranges, seven national forests and six wilderness areas.
For Western Skies, I'm Molly Adams.
