Uniting to Protect Colorado's Hermosa Creek Watershed

Efforts to protect Colorado's Hermosa Creek watershed have brought together unlikely allies, a potential model to protect other wild places. http://www.pewenvironment.org/wilderness. 

Located just 10 miles from Durango, Hermosa Creek is a haven for hikers, mountain bikers, hunters, and anglers. A grassroots collaboration between these outdoor recreationists, small business owners, sportsmen and women, and others, kick-started legislation in Congress to protect this southwestern Colorado watershed. The bill calls for preserving historic uses in most areas, while designating 38,000 acres of wilderness and a 43,000-acre roadless area.

The 108,000-acre Hermosa Creek Watershed includes 17 distinct ecosystems, and is home to wildlife, such as native Colorado River cutthroat trout, deer, elk, and Canada lynx. Its pristine, old-growth ponderosa pine forest is one of the largest in the San Juan Mountains. 

Get to know this special place, and the people working to protect it, in this episode of "This American Land," produced in partnership with The Pew Charitable Trusts.

http://www.pewenvironment.org/news-room/other-resources/spotlight-on-this-american-land-85899532561.