Four Corners • Entered by Jennifer Singer on December 28, 2023
Carpenter Natural Area Advocacy
September 29, 2023
Participants and Hours
| Pre Planning hours | 4 |
| Post Admin hours | 1 |
| Activity Hours | 4 |
| Participants | 1 |
| Total Hours | 9 |
Key Issue: Public Lands Health & Protection
Activity Type: Advocacy (rallies, lobbying, meeting decision makers, letters/calls/emails)
Key Partners: Teri Paul- Friends of Carpenter Natural Area
Short Description of Activity
Attended planning meeting with Friends of Carpenter Natural Area and partnered up to take action to oppose a zoning change. Independent Log Co wanted to change a commercially zoned property to industrial adjacent to Carpenter Natural Area which is also adjacent to a residential area. My Letter to the Editor was published on Sunday August 20th. I wrote another letter on Broads letterhead and sent it to the Cortez City Council. I read it first at the City Council Meeting on 9-26 2023. We were there from 7-11PM with much opposition, but also quite a large group of mostly family and employees of Independent Log Co in favor of the zoning change.
Reflection/Evaluation
The Cortez City Council voted against the zoning change finally. It was a good partnership and we let people know that we’re here to help protect natural areas. I learned alot more about our local logging issues. We will continue working on the Salter logging project partnering with San Juan Citizens Alliance. These logging companies have recently moved in because of an open-ended EA that allows them too much freedom to log at will in our San Juan National Forest which is part of our Dolores River watershed- the only source of water for our area. Future projects include Protect the Dolores River Canyon which includes the logging issues and uranium mining proposals which threaten our public lands health and our community health.