Discretionary Review Decision
on the
Chief’s Appeal Decision Regarding the
Arapaho and Roosevelt National Forests and Pawnee National Grassland
Revised Land and Resource Management Plan

As part of the discretionary review decision of the Chief of the Forest Service’s appeal decision on an appeal by the Northern Colorado Water Conservation District and others, Deputy Under Secretary for Natural Resources and Environment, Department of Agriculture, David P. Tenny provided a detailed discussion on the issue of water resources management and special-use authorizations on National Forest System (NFS) lands.

Under Secretary Tenny’s statements on water resource management and special-use authorizations (page 4 – 7) are formulated into four basic cornerstones to managing water resources on NFS lands. These cornerstones urge the Forest Service to adopt policies and plans that seek to coordinate its water resource management and meet its water resource goals and objectives through a process where federal, state, and local authorities work together in cooperation with water right holders and other interested parties to meet National Forest resource needs. Tenny states that water resource management through coordinated and cooperative action is preferred over a reliance on a process of unilateral federal action.

Region 2 of the Forest Service has taken Under Secretary Tenny’s discussion on water resource management issues to represent the Department of Agriculture’s most current thinking and policy on how to manage water resources on NFS lands. The Pathfinder Project Steering Committee’s work is consistent with the four cornerstones outlined by Under Secretary Tenny. For this reason the Pathfinder Project instream flow management strategies provide an important link between the Department of Agriculture’s position on water resource management and a community-based process that can be implemented at the local level on NFS lands.

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